Hurting
by PurpleMoon12
Summary: So what happens when Chloe doesn't go to Lyle house, but gets adopted into a not-so-nice environment? And her neighbour just so happens to be a green-eyed, anti-social werewolf! This is an extended version of my short story for Darkest Powers!
1. Daydream Believer

**Sadly, I do not own the Darkest Powers trilogy, my name isn't Kelley Armstrong and I do not own any of the characters.**

**So this is an extended version of my short story that I published on here earlier, and I got some lovely feedback and people wanting me to make it into a longer version, so this is what I'm doing. It's going to start all over again, with much more detail. This will be in chapter form, unlike my short story.**

**Tori, Simon and Kit will be introduced in this story, unlike the short story and some things have been modified a teeny, tiny but but the plot is still pretty much the same.**

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><p>Tonight was like every other night. It was spent staring at the ceiling. I rarely ever slept, whenever I did I had awful nightmares; they always felt so real. Rae's soft snores sounded from the other side of the room. I was envious – she slept so peacefully every night while I would lay here feeling sorry for myself.<p>

It was extremely cold. We never got blankets, only thin sheets. It was winter so there was nothing I could do about it except tough it out – which was the main thing they taught us here. Everything we endured here, we just needed to suck it up. We were punished harshly, going days without food and showers. Sometimes they'd even hit us. The beatings were pretty brutal, but didn't happen to me because I tried my best to behave.

I hated it here. My Aunt Lauren told me that I'd be safe – maybe even happy – but I didn't feel it. I was miserable, cold and most of all, lonely. I wanted a best friend but mine died a long time ago. My best friend was my mum. She died in a hit and run accident when I was six. Not too long after, my dad shipped me off to my Aunt Lauren's house to live with her and I haven't heard from him since. Aunt Lauren had me in her care for about a year before giving me up and putting me in the orphanage. She didn't like the fact that she had to take up more work to look after me and feed me; so as a result, I've been living in the orphanage since I was seven.

After living here for eight years, I haven't heard from my Aunt Lauren. She told me she would come and visit me every week because she didn't live too far away, but that never happened.

I glanced at the digital clock that was on the other side of the room. The bright red numbers read as 3:43AM. I suppressed a groan when I came to the realization that I needed to be up and ready at 7:00AM sharp. Rolling over and getting myself comfortable, I quickly drifted into a dreamless sleep.

Much too soon, a loud bang shook me from my sleep. It was accompanied by a loud voice.

"Chloe, Rae, get your asses out of bed," called Mrs Talbot. "You have five minutes to be dressed and ready for breakfast." Her butch voice boomed through the door.

I rolled my eyes at the stupid woman yelling at us. She was the least favourite of our carers, it was her that dealt the harsh punishments and unfortunately, she was the woman that was here the most so she didn't miss a single thing. We were always being watched by her.

Reluctantly pushing myself out of bed, I dragged myself to the dresser. Looking in the mirror above it, I saw the dark circles surrounding my eyes, giving away the fact that I didn't get enough sleep. I groaned. They made me look awful, and against my pale skin, they made me look dead. I grabbed my stick of concealer and dabbed it around my bright blue eyes to cover up the darkness underneath them. I pulled my shoulder length strawberry blonde hair into a messy ponytail after many attempts at keeping it tidy, leaving my fringe and a few strands to frame my face.

Opening the top drawer of the dresser, I grabbed my favourite hoodie. It was a pale orange colour with a white, stitched outline of a bird on it. I pulled on a park of dark blue fitted jeans and my white canvas shoes.

Glancing in the mirror one last time, I hurried out the bedroom door and down stairs to eat breakfast. I was looking forward to it – I hadn't eaten in four days because I accidentally knocked over a glass of milk. When I walked into the kitchen, I saw a bowl of sludge on the table in front of my seat. Pretending I didn't see it, I asked, "What's for breakfast?" with a smile on my face.

"Porridge" Replied Mrs Talbot – always the one for a long conversation. Bitch. Her butch voice sounded again, "Well…? Aren't you going to sit down and eat it?" she asked.

She expected me to eat that? Living in an orphanage, I didn't expect five star meals but they certainly didn't put much effort into making our food. Whenever we had porridge it had an awful taste to it, like it was burnt.

I sat in my seat and looked at the bowl. Taking into consideration that I hadn't eaten in a few days that it was a blessing that I was actually getting food, so I decided to just deal with it and eat the damn porridge, and as I suspected, it tasted awful. Eating as much as I could, I rinsed the bowl out and placed it in the sink.

I was about to leave the kitchen when I heard Mrs Talbot say my name. Turning around, she spoke again and what she said took me completely by surprise.

"Chloe, there's a nice young married couple coming to see you tomorrow. They sound really keen on adopting and you might just have yourself a nice home." I widened my eyes and let a smile tug at the corners of my mouth, which was rare.

I didn't say anything, I just turned on my heel and walked out the door letting my smile widen. Not too far away from the kitchen, I heard a low mutter. I recognized it as Mrs Talbot's voice. She was talking to another carer, Mrs Wang. I heard her mutter the words, "She's been here too long, and we're finally getting rid of her! Let's just hope Andrew and Gwen like her enough and take her home." I gave a small, quiet chuckle at this; I always knew Mrs Talbot hated me but she was never upfront to me about it. It never really bothered me though; she was a cynical old bat to everyone.

Walking into my room, I found Rae. She smiled widely at me and I smiled back. I sat down next to her on her bed and told her about these people who were coming to talk to me and were considering adopting.

She shot me a smile but it was sad. "Girl, I'll be so happy for you if you do get out of here, I know how much you hate it. I'll miss you so much though!" she said. Rae knew that I had been here for eight years and she made it clear that she felt really bad for me. She'd only be here for three years after her foster parents died and we instantly became friends. Around everybody else, I'd be shy and not talk much at all, but having a friend made me come out of my shell a bit more. I was thankful to have her around.

"I know, Rae. I'll miss you too, but I promise we'll keep in touch if I leave!" I replied and gave her a hug.

The rest of the day went really quickly. I finished all my chores and cleaned mine and Rae's room. I didn't know what that girl was going to do without me if I wasn't there to clean it.

We had chicken wraps for dinner then we all seated ourselves in the living room to watch a movie. It was Rae's turn to pick the movie. Despite the fact that the carers in the orphanage treated us awfully, we still got some privileges.

We ended up watching a movie called 'Beastly' which just so happened to be my favourite movie. By the time it was finished, it was almost ten o'clock, which was the time we were supposed to be in bed. All eight of us climbed the stairs and I said goodnight to Brady and Mila.

After getting changed and climbing into bed, I said goodnight to Rae and we turned off the lights.

I couldn't sleep though; all I could think about was getting out of the orphanage and being in a loving home. I hoped I could make a good impression on these people that we're coming to talk to me tomorrow.

I sighed and rolled over so I was staring at the wall. Rae was asleep by now, snoring heavily. I wanted to get a decent sleep but I was on edge and worried. Finally, I started humming the tune to 'Daydream Believer' to myself in hopes that it will help me feel better, and it worked. I fell asleep not too long after and dreamed of being taken away from here and moving in with people who loved me.

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><p><strong>Okay, I know this chapter is kind of slow and short but I promise it will get more interesting in the next one. Reviews would be absolutely lovely but I'm not going to be the kind of person that only makes chapters in return for reviews. I just like hearing feedback – positive OR negative. <strong>


	2. So Lucky

**Hey there. I'm sorry I didn't update earlier, and I thank everybody that reviewed the first chapter. **

**I'm not Kelley Armstrong, I don't own the Darkest Powers trilogy, and I don't own any of the characters. **

**So yeah, here's chapter two. I'm sorry it's so short but for now, it's something.**

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><p>I sat in Mrs Talbot's office, drumming the arm rest of the chair I sat in out of nervousness. The fact that I couldn't keep negative thoughts out of my head made it worse. I worried that Andrew and Gwen – the couple that were coming to talk to me – wouldn't like me; that I wouldn't be good enough for them. It scared me to think about not having a chance at a good home.<p>

The old door creaked open and I snapped my head towards it. A young woman walked in, probably around the age of twenty five. She was short – not much taller than me - and had blonde hair that ended just above her shoulders. She was followed by a man who was half a foot taller than her and had dark, greying hair which seemed to be strange because he only looked around thirty years old.

As I suspected, they introduced themselves as Andrew and Gwen Carson. I politely smiled at them and introduced myself, even though they knew my name.

They sat down on the other side of a small coffee table situated towards the back of Mrs Talbot's office. I nervously fiddled with my clothes and my necklace that my mother had given to me when I was young – she told me it would make the monsters and boogeymen go away.

Gwen's cheery voice interrupted my thoughts. "So, Chloe, I guess you know why we're here!" she accused. I smiled politely and nodded my head.

It was Andrew's turn to speak. "So what do you enjoy doing? What are your hobbies?" he asked.

"I really like movies and reading books. I spend a lot of my time drawing, too." Andrew's face lit up at my response. He revealed that he had a job in some publishing company and asked me who some of my favourite authors were.

We talked about books and movies for the next hour and before I knew it, our time was up and I was made to leave the room so they could discuss taking me to live with them.

I ran back into my room and sighed as I fell back onto my bed. Fifteen minutes later, a light knock sounded from the door which was strange, our carers liked to pound on the door as hard as they could just to scare us. I thought they got some kind of sick thrill from hearing us shriek and thinking we'd done something wrong.

I turned my head towards the door in time to see Gwen open it and peek her head through. She gave me a small smile, and for a second, she seemed to be hesitant. I felt my heart drop at seeing that, what if they didn't like me enough? _Why_ didn't they like me enough?

My mental accusations were proven wrong when Gwen's smile widened as she stepped fully into my room. "Chloe, we're going to come back and take you home tomorrow, okay?" she said. I felt my eyes widen at her words.

"Are you sure?" I asked. She laughed at this and reassured me that she and Andrew were one hundred per cent positive that they would be happy to invite me into their family.

Before I knew it, I had flung myself off of my bed and trapped Gwen in a hug. She stumbled back a little but regained her balance quickly and let out a small chuckle, then hugged me back. I mumbled a 'thank you' into her shoulder and let her go. She told me she'd be back the next day at one o'clock and with that, she closed the door, leaving me with my excitement.

When her words finally sunk in, I grabbed my back pack and shoved all of my possessions into it. I didn't have many things, only some clothes and my sketchpad. I cleared my dresser of my clothes and shoved them in my bag, not bothering to fold them, and left out an outfit on the top of the dresser to wear the next day.

Rae walked into the room as I was packing. Hearing her walk in, I turned around and ran at her to give her a hug.

I pulled back and saw tears in her eyes. The sight of her tearing up made me do the same.

"Girl, you're so _lucky!"_ she said to me. She gave a small laugh.

"I guess I am. I'm going to miss you so much, Rae. I promise I'll call and come to visit though. We can e-mail too." my voice was shaky as I started sobbing.

"Do you promise?" she asked, letting her tears flow down her cheeks.

"Rae, you're my best friend. Of course I promise." I let out an unsteady laugh as I felt a fresh round of tears making their way to the brims of my eyes.

I gave Rae one last hug and we left our room to tell my other friends that I was leaving. It was sad, but they were all really happy for me after knowing how long I had been there.

Because I was leaving, Mrs Talbot gave me the honour of choosing what we all ate for dinner. I thought this was ridiculous because anything they ever gave us to eat tasted like crap but I decided on lasagne. The meal wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, thankfully.

After dinner everybody headed off to do their own thing. I stayed down in the recreation room with Rae and Brady. We just sat there, talking and watching the television. Brady couldn't believe that I was leaving, and he made me promise to keep in touch with him as well.

Before I knew it, it was ten o'clock. Rae, Brady and I walked up the stairs. We said good night to Brady before heading to our own room.

I pulled on my pyjamas and crawled into bed. Rae and I continued to talk for just over an hour before she told me that she was going to sleep. We said goodnight and soon enough, her snores sounded throughout the room.

I sighed and rolled over to face the wall, I was really excited about the day to come. I couldn't wait to be accepted into a family and move out of the orphanage.

I felt the darkness of sleep pull me under, and after a while, I was dreaming of all the different scenarios that my future would hold now that I had a chance at a real life, and having a real family.

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><p><strong>Reviews would be absolutely amazing, but as I said in the first chapter, I'm not one of the people who only do chapters in return for reviews. I just like feedback and to see how people react to the story. <strong>

**Thanks guys, I'll be sure to update soon!**


	3. Nobody Goes Hungry When Rae is Around

**Okay, so I'll start off by apologizing for not updating as soon as I had hoped. I had a teeny, tiny accident involving hot chocolate and my laptop keyboard, resulting in it having to be shipped off for a week or so to be fixed. I was going to update on my other computer, but I really wanted all of my files for one story to be on the same computer. Eep!**

**Any ways, like I said in the previous two chapters, I am not Kelley Armstrong and I do not claim ownership of any characters. **

**Enjoy!**

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><p>I woke up to the sun beating through the gaps in the curtains. It was so bright, it was almost blinding. I felt well rested, I couldn't remember the last time I had such a good sleep.<p>

Sitting up in my bed, I noticed that Rae wasn't in hers. It was a Sunday and we usually were allowed to sleep in until nine o'clock, and Rae was always the first to take advantage of that. It was strange that the room was so silent.

As silently as possible, I tip-toed down the hallway and into the kitchen. Just as I had expected, Rae was there and she was cooking something, it smelt good.

"Rae?" I asked. In response, she let out a squeal and jumped as she wheeled around to face me with a wide-eyed expression. I had to supress a laugh at her face.

"Girl, you don't go sneaking up on people like that, I think I just had a heart attack!" she said.

I rolled my eyes. "Well maybe if you weren't up at… what time is it again?" I asked her.

"Eight o'clock. I know it's early, especially for me, but…" she cleared her throat, "nobody must go hungry!" she exclaimed as she thrust the spatula that she held up in the air.

I let out a small giggle as I peered around her. She was making pancakes. "So why are you up so early to make pancakes?" I asked, nodding towards the stove. The pancake was quite obviously burning, I could smell it.

"Well…" she started, dragging out the 'L', "I wanted to make you a goodbye breakfast. I was going to get a present, but for the life of me I didn't even know what to get you. But I know you like pancakes so it seemed like a safe road to go down, and now if you'll excuse me, your present is burning." She blabbed on as she tossed the charred pancake into the bin.

"Rae! That's probably the nicest thing anybody has ever done for me!" I exclaimed as I hugged her. She hugged me back then pointed to a seat at the table.

"Sit your butt down," she started, "and most importantly of all, enjoy!" she ordered and set a stack of pancakes down on the plate in front of me.

The pancakes were amazing. Rae was really good at cooking and baking and she enjoyed making food for us.

When I had finished, I set my plate in the sink and sat down across the table from Rae.

"I'm going to miss you, Rae. I just want to say thank you for everything you've done for me. Before you came here I probably would have never opened up to anybody. I promise I'll email, and visit whenever I can, okay?" I said as a tear slid out of the corner of my eye. Rae was my best friend and I hated leaving her here, but I didn't doubt that she'd get adopted sometime soon.

"I'll miss you too, Chloe. I'm glad I got the chance to meet you; I can't remember having a best friend before I was put in here. I'll make sure to keep in touch as well." She replied, obviously trying not to let her voice crack between her sobs.

Before we knew it, it was nine o'clock. The shuffling of feet on floorboards sounded overhead, later followed by the banging on bedroom doors and the voice of Mrs Talbot sounding throughout the whole building.

People started shuffling down the stairs, some already dressed and some still in their pyjamas. They sat down at the large table as Rae began to re-heat pancakes in the microwave and dish them out generously. She didn't lie when she stated that nobody would go hungry, she always made sure to make extra food.

Just after everybody had finished, Mrs Talbot walked in the room and announced the fact that I would be leaving at twelve o'clock. Everybody was happy for me, but there were some faces that were obviously sad to see me go. I'd grown close to a lot of people in the orphanage and I really didn't want to have to leave them but I accepted the fact that I had been there too long, and so had they.

After some exchanged goodbyes, hugs and tears, I realised I was still in my pyjamas. I grabbed a towel and a change of clothes and ran towards one of the bathrooms to take a shower.

I hopped out of the shower and threw on a singlet and dark skinny jeans. Deciding that I would spend longer than necessary in the bathroom, I blow dried my hair so it looked slightly more presentable. When I was happy with my hair, I threw on a pale blue hoodie over the singlet.

Thankfully, nobody noticed how long I took showering so Mrs Talbot wasn't waiting outside the door to yell at me. I shot towards my room and pulled on socks and my white canvas shoes, which were more of a light brown colour, really. I needed new ones badly.

I studied myself in the mirror. Despite the fact that I felt well rested, I certainly didn't look it. I rummaged through my bag to find my concealer. My fingers brushed a tube, so I grabbed for it. I dabbed the cream under my eyes and blended it into my skin. I finally looked a lot more awake and a lot more presentable than I usually looked, but I still wasn't happy with what I saw. I didn't think I was ugly or anything, but there certainly wasn't anything special about me. I looked like I just turned twelve instead of fifteen.

I sighed as I trudged out my room and down the stairs. Rae and Brady met me at the door of one of the living rooms and held up a DVD.

"Want to watch a movie with us?" Rae asked.

"Depends," I said as I squinted at the DVD case. The title read 'Spirited Away,' and it was one of my favourite movies, so I eagerly agreed.

We settled into the large couch that occupied half the room. The room was small, very claustrophobic just like the rest of the building. It _looked_ big from the outside but there were just so many rooms, it looked small and cluttered from the inside.

Rae pressed the play button on the TV remote and the movie started playing. Every now and then Rae would interrupt and say something about a scene, or how No Face was a creeper. I couldn't help but giggle at her sudden outbursts.

Soon enough, the movie was over and it was almost twelve o'clock. Andrew and Gwen would be here any minute. I was so excited, I couldn't stop bouncing my knee and drumming my fingers on the arm rest of the sofa.

Mrs Talbot gathered everybody in the recreation room. There were very few rooms in the building that could fit us all in it at once but we managed just fine.

We all said our final goodbye's and exchanged email addresses. A few tears were cut loose as I hugged Rae and Brady goodbye. I promised them that we'd stay in touch and I fully intended to keep that promise. There was no way I could shut Rae or Brady out of my life, especially after becoming so close to them.

Andrew and Chloe arrived with a few minutes to spare. They signed the rest of the paper work and I left with them. We walked towards a small, silver car and got in. I sat in the back and chatted happily with Gwen as Andrew drove out of the area.

We started chatting about movies and books; we joked around and made each other laugh. Gwen had a really bubbly personality, and while Andrew was more reserved, he never held back on a joke or a funny comment. They were fun people to be around.

Fifteen minutes of chatter later, we began to move further and further away from the town. Houses became scarce and trees and bushland became more dominant. I watched out the window as the trees moved by us quickly. They were just blurs of green and brown, and then a sudden flash of white caught my eye.

It was a large, white Victorian house with a well-kept garden. It was quite beautiful. A tall man in the front yard turned and waved to us and Gwen stuck her arm out the window to wave back. Once we passed him she turned to me.

"That's our neighbour, Kit. There aren't many houses around here and he's our closest neighbour. He's a lovely man. He and Andrew are really close friends." She said.

A few seconds later, Andrew turned the car into a short drive way. I could still see Kit's house from our front yard, but no other houses were made visible. Not only was Kit our _closest_ neighbour, he was our _only_ neighbour.

"Come on, Chloe. We'll show you around." Andrew said as he picked up my bag.

I looked up towards my new home. It was like the house next door, large and old fashioned but nonetheless, beautiful. It wasn't overly fancy but it was nice, kind of like something from an old, gothic movie.

We walked up to the front door and waited while Gwen fumbled with her keys. Soon after, we all stepped inside and Andrew set my bags down near the door and told me to follow him.

Looking around, the house was well furnished. The walls were the brightest shade of white and the floor boards were a dark wooden colour. There was a dark display table with a vase of flowers and a picture frame sitting in the corner. The photograph in the golden frame was of Andrew with a tall man with Asian features and dark hair. It was a cute photo, they both looked happy, each holding a can of beer.

My attention snapped back to Andrew as he walked us through the living room and the kitchen, which were quite large and modern. We walked up the staircase to see a long hallway. I was shown the bathroom, Andrew's study and the spare room. We finally came to a stop at the end of the hallway.

"So, Chloe, here's your room." He said as I stepped in my new bedroom. It was large, possibly larger than necessary but I definitely wasn't complaining. The walls were painted a light grey colour and were decorated with all sorts of colourful canvas paintings. The one canvas that really caught my eye was a painting of a large black wolf surrounded by trees. The canvas was hanging above my new bed, which was larger than what I needed because I was so small, but it definitely looked cosy.

On the other side of the room, there was a window door with a balcony, and to the left of the balcony, there was a stair case leading to the back yard. The view from the balcony was beautiful. The house was surrounded by trees and bushland. I turned and walked back into my new bedroom.

I looked around the room some more to see a study table and a computer chair, a dark wooden dresser and a wardrobe of matching colour. The room was furnished beautifully and I was really excited to settle in. I hadn't had a room to myself in so long.

Gwen had bought my bag up with us and handed it to me. I started to unpack my clothes and neatly folded some to go in the dresser and hung up the rest in the wardrobe. I took out my sketchbook and set it down on the tiny study table in the corner of the room. With what little possessions that I owned, my room felt empty but I was grateful to not be crowded in such a small space like I was in the orphanage.

Andrew and Gwen had obviously made a lot of effort to be able to take me in, and I was really grateful for it. I decided to go and tell them exactly that so I bounced down the stairs to find them in the kitchen, drinking tea.

"C-can I just s-say something?" I asked, shifting my weight from one foot to the other.

Andrew and Gwen nodded for me to continue.

"I-I just want to thank you for taking me into your home. I know you've gone to a lot of effort w-with the paper work and making my room up and I just want t-to let you know that the effort hasn't gone unnoticed. I don't want to sound ungrateful." I announced as I stared at my shoes.

I looked up to find Andrew and Gwen grinning at each other.

"Chloe, we're happy to take you in, there's no need to thank us at all," Gwen stated. "Come and sit down, we need to talk about something." She said with a huge smile.

I sat at the counter across from Andrew and Gwen.

"Chloe, we've decided to give you a week to settle in, and you'll be starting at a nearby school that's not too far from here next Monday. Are you okay with that?" Andrew asked.

I nodded my head eagerly. A chance to be a normal teenage girl and go to a proper high school? I definitely couldn't think of any reason to object to that.

"Of course. What's the name of the school?" I asked.

"It's called Lyle High School. It's about a ten minute drive from here." Gwen replied. "They specialize in the arts."

"That sounds great!" I exclaimed with a smile.

Andrew and Gwen seemed relieved that I was going to comply with their plans. Over the next hour we talked about house rules and school. They didn't seem overly strict, but they definitely stood true to their word. I was kind of relieved that they weren't too over bearing like they were in the orphanage.

After they laid down the rules it was time for dinner, and since I was the new guest I was the one to choose what we had, so I went with toasted sandwiches. Simple and easy.

When dinner was over, we settled into the living room and watched TV. We chatted while we watched N.C.I.S. and we got to know each other a little better. I told them what my life was like in the orphanage and they were really sympathetic. I felt grateful to be welcomed into their home.

I decided that it was getting pretty late so I headed off to my bedroom, saying good night to Andrew and Gwen. I dug out my pyjamas, the pants were a light blue with sheep and flowers on them and the top was just a plain grey shirt. The childish pants definitely didn't do any justice in making me look older, but I thought they were cute.

I pulled my hair back into a messy ponytail and jumped into bed. It was so warm and comfortable, it almost felt unnatural. I wasn't used to it, but I let the large mattress swallow me up anyway.

Nothing felt real any more, I felt numb. Not because I was upset, but because I was so certain that nobody would ever want me. It was a shock to be taken from an awful environment into one that was beyond what I deserved. I was excited to finally have a chance at a normal life, I wanted to go to school and meet new people. It wasn't going to be easy though, I was never very good in social situations because of my stutter.

Was I going to be the weird new girl with the stutter? Would everybody label me as a social outcast because I was shy? I hoped not.

I was never good at making friends, and my stutter definitely didn't assist in that. A lot of people got impatient with me while I tried to get my sentences together, but I didn't bother with those people. There was one girl in the orphanage who would always mock my stutter. She absolutely hated me and she made it quite clear. Eventually she got adopted into a family of five and never kept in touch with anybody back in the orphanage – not even her close friends. It was sad, really.

I snapped back to reality and finally, everything that was happening started to sink in. I had a family now, a home, my own room and bed. I felt content, I felt happy. Maybe things were finally going to start looking up. I was getting the chance at a normal life, something I had always wanted.

Shutting my eyes, I let the darkness of much needed sleep consume me.

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><p><strong>So, there's chapter three done. I think it's probably one of my best pieces of writing yet but I'd like to know what you guys think.<strong>

**Thanks to everybody who's reviewed this story so far, I really appreciate feedback! **


	4. Lyle High School

**Yay! Chapter four! **

**So this is going to start out with Chloe being introduced to her new school. Keep in mind that Australian schools are different to American schools, so I probably won't know what I'm talking about. Feel free to correct anything if I get it wrong.**

_**No, I'm not Kelley Armstrong. I know I'm fabulous (le sarcasm) but that does not make me the owner of any of the characters.**_

_**Also, I know I haven't updated in ages – my bad! But here's an extra-long chapter, just for you guys!**_

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><p>"Good luck, kiddo." Andrew said to me as I got out the car and retrieved my bag from the back seat.<p>

"Thanks." I mumbled quietly. Sighing, I turn around to face the large building.

My whole life I had wanted to go to school and be a normal teenager. Sure, Mrs Talbot was technically a teacher back in the orphanage and taught me most of the things I know, but this was different. People swarmed through the front gates and into the building that was standing intimidatingly in front of me. Now that I was here, I wasn't so sure that this was what I actually wanted.

I supressed a groan and shrunk into my pale orange hoodie. Walking into the big doors of the tall, grey structure, I realise I had absolutely no idea where I was going.

_Crap. _

There was a tall red-haired girl who was shuffling through her locker, gathering her books. I approached her and ask her where the head office is.

"Um, e-excuse me?" I ask and she jumped as if startled, hitting her head on the top of her locker. "S-sorry." Damn my stutter.

She turned to me and smiled, showing straight, white teeth. "Yes?" she asked.

"C-could you t-tell me where the head office is?"

"Newbie, huh? I'm Brooke."

"Chloe." I managed to not stutter my name.

Her smile, if possible, widened. "Just keep walking up here," she pointed further down the hall, "and take the first left. The office will be on your right, there's a sign on the door so it'll be hard to miss. I'd walk you there but my class is on the other side of the school, sorry." She said with an apologetic smile.

"T-thanks."

"No worries, maybe we'll have some classes together."

"Hopefully. Thanks for the help, Brooke." I said and gave her a small wave. Turning around, I took the directions that I was told until I came to a door with a large sign telling me that it was the office.

I pushed the door open to see a petite, old woman with purple hair sitting behind the desk. Her hair was worn in short, tight curls and she wore purple framed glasses.

"Hello, dear." She said to me with a wide smile.

"H-hi. My name is C-Chloe Saunders. I-it's my f-first day," I managed to stutter out. Taking a deep breath, I continue. "I need to grab my timetable."

"Of course. Welcome to Lyle High." She said as she searched through a messily placed stack of papers on the desk. A few mumbled curses later, she came up with my schedule and my locker combination and handed it to me with long, red fingernails.

I mumbled a 'thank you' and exited the office to examine my timetable.

The bell had already sounded so there weren't many people in the hall way, just a few who hadn't yet reached their classes. I glanced down at the paper in my hand to see what lessons I had.

_Hour 1: Art – Miss Libb. Room ART03_

_Hour 2: English apps. – Mr Robbs. Room B08_

_Hour 3: Math pathways – Mr Spader. Room D11_

_Morning Break_

_Hour 4: Theatre – Mrs Lei. Performing Arts Centre _

_Hour 5: Biology – Mrs Blunk. Room SCI04_

_Lunch_

_Hour 6: Gym – Mr Shawn. Gym_

_Hour 7: Legal studies – Mrs Brown. Room S08_

I was pretty happy with my timetable, except for gym and maths – I was awful at both.

Stuffing my sheet with the locker combination in my bag, I tried to navigate myself to my art class – room number A03. Finding the 'A' corridor, I took a right turn to see a load of doors, odd numbers on the left, even on the right. Approaching number 03, I took a deep breath and pushed the door open. The class fell silent, all eyes trained on me.

Feeling a blush creep up on my face, I flipped my hair over my shoulder to create a curtain barrier between me and the eyes of my new classmates.

The teacher, Miss Libb, turned to whoever disturbed her class – which just so happened to be me. She had piercing blue eyes and long, dark brown hair.

"Who are you?" she demanded, sounding quite rude.

"C-Chloe Saunders. I-I-" I started.

"Spit it out!" Came a brutish voice from the back of the class, followed by a few laughs.

I ducked my head. "I'm new here." I managed to rush the words out.

"Well there's one last seat, now sit down." She spat out and waved her hand in the direction of a vacant seat.

I took my seat between a blonde boy with Asian features, and a girl with long, blonde hair and blue eyes. The boy was attractive; he could probably pull in any girl if he tried, undoubtedly one of the jocks.

After Miss Libb finished explaining our task, she sat at her desk, smacking gum in her mouth obnoxiously, making it clear whether or not we finished our task.

The blonde boy turned to me and smiled.

"So, you're the new neighbour then." He said to me.

"I-I'm sorry?" I made my confusion clear.

"I'm Simon Bae, Kit's son. We live next door to you."

"Andrew didn't t-tell me that Kit had a son. I'm Chloe."

"Two sons, actually. And a daughter. Well actually, Derek, my brother, is adopted and Tori and I are only half siblings and-" he rushes his words "-Oh my, I'm rambling, aren't I?"

"Yes, you are, Simon. Now be quiet!" Said a voice to my left. I turned to see the blonde girl with blue eyes. She was laughing. "Hey, I'm Liz. Short for Elizabeth." I gave the girl a smile.

"So, how do you like the school so far?" Simon asked.

"So far so good."

Simon gave a nod. "So let's see your timetable."

I handed him the already crinkled up paper and watched him while he surveyed it.

"Ah, you have English and gym with my brother. You also have biology and legal studies with Tori. I'm in your math class too; I've never been good at it. Always hated the damned subject." He said with a frown.

"You're in my theatre class too!" Liz squealed a bit too loudly.

"Hey Liz, want to say that any louder? I don't think they heard you in New Zealand." Said a large boy who was sitting behind us. He was tall and slim with long blonde hair which looked greasy.

"Get lost, Liam." She replied.

"In your pants?" He asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

The blonde girl scoffed and turned her back on him. "Want a tip?" she whispered and I nodded my head in agreement. "Stay the hell away from that guy. He's a creep." I nodded my head again to show her that I would.

The siren blared and we shuffled out of the classroom. Again, I was left to find another class and had no idea where I was going. Everybody else had already made their way to their own classes so there was nobody to ask. Five minutes later I come across the B corridor and walk down it until I find room 08. I mentally prepared myself to be the focus of attention again and pushed the door open to reveal a large class with only a few students.

The teacher – Mr Robbs – was half way through talking, but stopped to turn to me. He smiled at me, much more polite than the art teacher.

"Hello there. Why are you late?" He asked me in a condescending tone.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm new and I kind of had to find my own way." I said, staring down at my shoes.

"That's quite all right. And your name is?"

"Chloe Saunders."

"Okay, Chloe. Take a seat." He smiled at me.

I took a seat next to a tall boy with dark hair that hung in his eyes. He looked stocky – maybe even over weight? Either way, he looked huge. He had some acne that was dotted across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose – it was almost cute. On my other side sat the girl that directed me towards the office – Brooke. I smiled and waved to her and she returned the gesture.

The English teacher – Mr Robbs – talked for the whole lesson so there was no chance to talk to Brooke. The boy next to me didn't even look up from his book.

The bell rang, signalling next class. I stood, stuffing my things into my backpack and heading out into the corridor, only to find Simon with his back against the doorframe. He smiled at me and held up his finger, telling me to wait for a second. Not too long after, a figure filled the doorframe. It was the figure of the boy who I had been sitting next to in English, and to say he was tall was an understatement. He towered way over six feet, making me feel shorter than I already was.

"Hey bro, did you meet Chloe?" Simon asked the boy with long, dark hair. He looked up from his shoes and looked around, only finding me after lowering his gaze a bit. I couldn't blame him. I was five foot nothing. His eyes met mine – a bright emerald green. I was almost hypnotized by the intensity of the colour.

He grunted a 'no' and said something that almost sounded like, "Nice to meet you." But I couldn't be sure, he was talking quietly.

I gave him a polite smile. "I guess I'll be seeing you in gym. Simon told me that you're in my class."

"Sure, I'll see you around." He said, and then quickly hurried off to his next class.

I turned to Simon. "So I guess we should be heading to-" I stopped when I saw his face. "You all right?" I ask.

"I've never seen Derek be _that_ polite to somebody that he's just met. Sorry, he just doesn't talk much to people he doesn't know."

"Should I feel special?" I laughed.

"Definitely." He said, sounding happy. "Now, let's go to maths. The teacher is pretty cool, heaps laid back. He won't be mad if we're a few seconds late." Simon was then leading me down the corridors

Maths was difficult; I never understood much of it. Simon was way better than me and zoomed past his work. I thought he said that he wasn't any good at it? He got through his no problem and I was stuck on question three. How the hell was I going to get through the rest of the year? They never taught us anything this difficult in the orphanage, it was all pretty basic.

I let my head hit the desk – probably a bit too loudly as well, as the teacher bought his attention to me.

"Everything okay, Chloe?"

"Y-yeah, just d-don't understand all of t-this." I managed to stutter out.

"You'll pick it up." He said to me with a smile.

_Like hell I will._

Finally, the bell rang, telling us that it was time for our morning break. We got fifteen minutes to eat some food and catch up with our friends, then we had to be in next lesson soon after.

I was stopped at the door by a voice.

"Chloe, can you just stay for a second?" Mr Spader, the math teacher asked.

"Sure. What's up?"

"What is it that you don't understand about math?"

I hesitated, chewing the inside of my cheek. "Well, most of it actually. I was never really taught much of this more complicated stuff."

"Complicated?" He raised an eyebrow at me.

"It's complicated to me. I was taught the simple stuff, not anything like this."

He shot a sympathetic look at me. "Chloe, we'll see how you go in picking things up, and if it doesn't improve and you're still having trouble, we'll organise tutoring."

"Sure. Thank you."

"Any time." He said, and dismissed me.

Instead of grabbing a snack, I headed straight for my next class – Theatre.

I found the performing arts centre easily. It was located in a separate building, behind the cafeteria. The building was large, and from what I could see, very high tech. Obviously living in what would be the equivalent to under a hole for most of my life, I would need some help using the technical things.

I sat on the benches outside the centre, waiting for the bell to ring. For the time being, I buried my nose in a book and spent my morning break reading.

Hearing the bell go off, I waited outside the doors for Liz and after a while, she came bouncing around the corner, looking happy.

Theatre went by quickly. I was introduced to the lighting equipment and was shown how to rig a lantern up off the catwalk bars. It took a lot of work; the lanterns were heavy and hard to carry with my small figure. Lifting them over the bars was the hardest; I had my best death grip on the handle the whole time, afraid that I'd drop the lantern into the hard floor that was six metres below.

After we put the lanterns back and packed up the wires, it was time to move on to our next class. Having the theatre room outside and so far away from the rest of the school, I had to resist the urge to run. I could always blow off some crap about getting lost anyway.

Easily finding my biology class, I stepped in. Thankfully this time nobody looked up to study me. The teacher, Mrs Blunk, showed me to a specific seat. I sat next to a girl with short, black hair that was spiked in all different directions. I soon figured out her name was Tori – Simon's sister.

The teacher blabbed on about genetics and DNA and all that crap. I didn't understand much, but I could always pretend that I did.

After a long lesson of genetics and multiple other things that I didn't understand, everybody filed out of their classrooms towards the cafeteria.

As I tried to navigate my way to my locker, I rounded a corner and came into contact with a wall. A breathing wall, and a very tall one at that. Stepping back, I found my eyes connecting with a pair of green ones, hidden behind a curtain of dark hair. It was Derek.

"Oh God. I-I'm s-sorry." I apologized. Bending down to pick up my bag that had fallen off my shoulder, a quicker hand snatched it out of my grasp. I looked up to see the boy that was in my art class – Liam?

"Oi Ramon, catch!" he yelled to a slightly shorter boy, who was a bit stocky and had short brown hair. He kind of looked like a rat that had been over fed.

Liam flung my bag through the air, and had the shorter boy caught it. They both laughed as though it was the most hilarious thing in the world. People gathered around, some laughing and some were sneering in disgust at the immaturity of the boys who were supposed to be seventeen. Me being five foot nothing had no chance of getting my bag back myself, but I tried. This just made them laugh even harder as they tossed the helpless black bag around.

After a minute of failed attempts of getting my bag from the older guys, I gave up. I leaned back on a locker, letting the guys have their fun with my bag. There wasn't anything breakable in it – only a couple of notepads and pens.

"Got anything good in here, cutie? Money?" Liam asked in his ugly accent.

"Real original, picking on the new girl to get some lunch money," I scoffed at them; I was beyond irritated so my stutter didn't show. "Are you done with my bag? I really doubt you'll find much use with a few pens and some paper. You don't look like the type of people that would know how to use either."

Liam dropped my bag, strutting up to me and getting right in my face. "Now now, what are you implying, cutie?"

"You obviously wouldn't understand if you have to ask." I gave my best glare.

All of the sudden, I was facing Derek's back. He had gotten in between me and Liam and was holding my bag. "Are we done here?" Derek asked Liam in a dangerously low tone.

"Got yourself a girlfriend, mutt?" Liam twisted around Derek to look at me, "Stay away from him, cutie. You don't want a big ugly brute like him here, you'd be better off with me." He said.

I scoffed. "Yeah, your backpack stunt really impressed me. When do you want to go out for dinner?" I asked, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

The dirty looking boy smiled at me, about to say something but Derek moved aside to block him again. About ten seconds later, Derek turned around to hand me my bag.

"Don't worry about him. He's a creep. Are you all right?" he asked.

"I'm fine. Slightly irritated but I'll be fine." I said, my voice a little shaky.

"Good, good. I'll see you later." He grunted.

Finding a table outside, I sat down and ate my sandwich while I read my book. I was so lost in the text that I almost didn't notice that the siren had blared until the yard started clearing out.

I didn't have to participate in gym until I got a spare change of clothes. I got to sit back and watch what I was going to have to do sooner or later, which was currently soccer - definitely not my favourite sport but definitely not the worst. It didn't look too difficult to play and I was kind of thankful for that.

Soon enough, I got bored of watching my classmates run around after a ball so I dug my book out of my bag and began reading.

Out of nowhere, my book was knocked from my hands my face came into contact with something hard and leathery – the soccer ball. It bounced off my right cheek and down to my feet.

Laughter erupted from the gym as I cradled the side of my face, my vision blurring slightly. I shook my head trying to clear my sight but it didn't work.

"Oh my God, you hit the new girl!" Laughter. "Maybe it knocked that awful stutter out of her." More laughter.

"She'll get over it. Seems like a bit of a freak anyway." A girl snorted.

"Chloe! Are you okay?" Derek asked, brow creased as if he was worried.

"I'm fine. My face is still intact, isn't it?" I asked with a smile, which hurt my cheek.

Derek nodded. "Your face is looking a bit red. Did you want some ice?"

"Nope, thank you though. I should be fine." I said, and then let him return to the sport.

My eyes were still unfocused. Sighing, I sat back and let my vision return by itself. Eventually, it did, but I had a monster of a headache.

'_Only one more lesson left. One more hour until I can get out of here. Nothing else bad will happen'_ I thought to myself as I pinched the bridge of my nose. My first day of school and I was already disliking it.

Thankfully, my legal studies class zoomed past. The teacher talked a lot and showed us a DVD about a murder case as we took notes. I zoned out for most of the lesson and tried to let my head rest.

Finally, we were dismissed from class. All I had to do was grab my books. Coming to a stop at my locker, I dialled in the combination and yanked the stubborn door open. A piece of paper caught my eye as it fluttered down to the floor, landing face down. I picked up the paper, turning it over to reveal one word.

'_Freak.'_ In big, bold letters.

Was this the word that was going to haunt me for the rest of my school life? What made me seem so abnormal? Was it my stutter? I didn't understand what made me so different apart from that. I tried to keep it under control; I even went to therapy in order to fix my speech impediment. Surely, they couldn't blame me for that.

But if it wasn't the stutter, then what was it? Nobody knew my situation and it was my only first day. Was this how they greeted everybody who moved here?

I was dwelling too much; I couldn't let it get to me. Scrunching up the piece of paper, I stuffed it to the side and gathered the books that I would need for home work. I tossed the piece of paper in the bin as I walked out the doors of the school.

Andrew and Gwen left it up to me to walk home because they had somewhere to be. After a week of living in the small town, I knew the streets pretty well so I felt confident getting home by myself. They gave me a cheap fifty dollar cell phone to use in case I lost my way but I doubted that I would need it.

I stepped out of the building into coldness that bit through my clothes. The wind blew my hair in all different directions, so I took the elastic band around my wrist and pulled my hair into a messy ponytail. Shoving my hands in the pockets of my hoodie, I began to walk home and prayed that it wouldn't start raining.

Twenty minutes into walking I came across a small shopping centre which seemed pretty busy. I took a short cut across the parking lot and through the main entrance of the mall. Shoppers crowded stalls and the entrances of small stores. I wasn't used to being out in public just yet, but I did like it. It was a completely different change of scene for me. I didn't feel unsettled, but the large crowds of people made me feel somewhat intimidated.

Thankfully, I came across the exit that I had been looking for – the one that bought me closer to my new home. It came out to reveal another parking lot, and behind that, thick layers of forest which I soon recognized. I still had quite a walk ahead of me.

I passed the house that belonged to Kit, Simon, Derek and Tori. I snuck a glance at the beautiful, big house and Kit was out the front tending to the garden. I had already met Kit, he came over to see Andrew a lot and we had talked a fair bit; I thought he was nice.

Kit raised his hand and waved at me, so I waved back politely and offered a small smile in his direction.

* * *

><p>I ended up zoning out on the sofa after many attempts at homework. There was no way I could concentrate. All I could think about was school and if I'd make any real friends. I guessed that I'd just have to see what would happen and live with it.<p>

Eventually, after what felt like a super long day, I dozed off in front of the TV and forgot about the past events that took place in my new personal hell - school. I dreamt of a happy place, which was where my mum was. I couldn't help but wonder what she would have thought of this.

Just before I could be sucked into sleep, I could've sworn I heard my mum's voice. But I knew that was impossible. I'd never hear her voice again.

**Awful ending, I know. But I'm really bad at writing endings to chapters/stories. Oops. **

**Reviews would be nice :3 I know it's not that great but I really wanted to get a chapter up.**


	5. Ready for School? No

**I would like to thank all the lovely people who have been reviewing my story so far. You're all great. **

**I'm trying to update more often, I don't know if I'll be able to keep this up considering I'm in year 11 now and have a crap load of work to do, but I'll definitely still be updating. **

**As usual, I'm not Kelley Armstrong and I don't own the Darkest Powers series.**

* * *

><p>The sound of my alarm caused me to jerk awake. I groaned and rolled over onto my back, waiting for my alarm to ring out. Feeling sorry for myself that I had to leave my warm bed to attend my new personal hell, – Andrew and Gwen called it school – I peeled the covers away from my body and was immediately exposed to the cold air of my bedroom. Thick pyjamas didn't cut it; the weather was so cold it was almost intolerable.<p>

Dragging myself to the bathroom, I managed to shower, dry my hair and get dressed in under an hour. I was about to walk out my bedroom door when I stopped myself by the mirror. I was happier in my new home and I actually slept at night, but the dark circles around my eyes didn't make that clear. Rummaging through my room, I searched for my concealer tube. I found it sitting in the top drawer of my bedside table and quickly dabbed the cream under my eyes to make me look more awake, and it worked. Feeling just that little more content with myself, I made my way downstairs to find Gwen.

"Ready for school?" She asked.

_No._

"Yeah, let's go." I followed her out the front door and to her car.

It was around my fourth week at Lyle High. I settled into my new school just fine, but there were people who called me a 'freak' at every chance they got. There was one girl – Mila – that couldn't seem to leave me alone. She thought that Simon and I had a 'thing' and saying that she was jealous would be an understatement. Unfortunately, she took gym class with me and liked to force the balls and equipment in my direction. It was as if she had a scoring system.

_Ten points for Chloe's stomach._

_Twenty for the back of her head._

_Fifty for right in the nose._

My small figure and my ability to move quickly made the odds in my favour. I was still clumsy – I fell over at every chance my feet would get – but doing gymnastics at a young age gave me an advantage in dodging anything that came in my direction, even if it meant that I fell on my face.

The car ride came to an end and Gwen stopped outside the school. We said goodbye and I grabbed my bag from the backseat.

"Thanks, Gwen." I said and closed the car door.

I made my way to art and found Simon standing outside the class with Derek. Simon greeted me with a dazzling smile and Derek nodded to say 'hello'. Derek didn't talk much, and he wasn't very social. It was clear he didn't have any friends except for Simon.

"Hey there." I said with a smile.

"Hey yourself. Ready for art?" Simon asked.

"With the Devil spawn?" I said, and Simon let out a laugh. Our art teacher was quite rude, and pretty full on. I dubbed her as the 'Devil spawn' and Simon thought it was hilarious, so we had been calling her that behind her back since my first week.

Finishing up our conversation, I said goodbye to Derek and turned into the classroom, following Simon. Before we even sat down, Mrs Libb had already spat out instructions. She sat at her desk, flipping through a magazine while we sketched pictures of our own mythical creatures that we created in our minds.

I attempted a creature with a fox-like face and the tail of a dragon. Its body and legs were pig-like, but with the texture of a fish. The assignment turned out to be awful, but I handed it up despite a possible fail.

My next class was English. I enjoyed English, we were given an assignment to write a short story and I was close to finishing mine, all I had left to do was go over it and fix up mistakes. At the end of the lesson, my story was finished and I handed it up to Mr Robbs.

The day went quickly, right up until I got into gym class.

Mila and her friends were in the changing rooms, one of Mila's friends was bouncing around in her bra and gym shorts, showing off her new belly piercing. I rolled my eyes at their behaviour and ducked into one of the change room stalls. I quickly stripped off my hoodie and pants and replaced them with a grey, loose fitting shirt and black shorts. When I emerged from the change room the blonde girl was still bouncing around.

I dumped my bag with everybody else's and joined the group who were waiting for the last of the students to come out of the change rooms. We had moved on from soccer and started basketball – the devil of all sports… well in my opinion anyway.

Mr Shawn went over the rules again and started splitting us up into four teams. Two teams went on court one and the other teams made their way to court two.

We kicked off the game with the usual toss up of the ball. A red-haired boy from my team managed to grab it after it hit the ground and moved swiftly to the other side of the court, dunking it in the net with ease. I was impressed, but nervous. Being terribly uncoordinated didn't work in my favour when it came to ball games.

The ball was in the hands of a tall blonde girl on the opposing team, but she quickly lost control of it and it went tumbling down the court, towards the middle. Before I knew it, a tall, dark haired boy had swooped down and had it in his possession. I identified the boy as Derek. Like the other boy, he moved swiftly but he was different – it looked almost professional with the way he moved between the other players. Unlike the other boy, he didn't dunk the ball inside the hoop, but stopped a good three or four metres away and easily rolled it off the tips of his fingers, making a smooth throw towards the net. It went right through and bounced once before a girl from the other team dived for it and picked it up.

It was Mila who had the ball now and she was heading straight towards me. I moved the side to avoid colliding with her but she followed my direction. Moving back towards the hoop, she made a stop and threw the ball, not towards the ring, but towards me. I braced myself for the impact but it never came. I opened my eyes to find Derek move in front of me and easily intercept the ball. Like before, he made his way down the court easily but this time, he dunked it in the net.

Mila looked pissed and crossed her arms with a huff. She then jutted her bottom lip out. She looked like a small child whose parents refused to buy them an ice cream. I laughed at the thought.

"What are you laughing at, _freak?"_ She spat.

"Your face." I said. I didn't mean for it to sound like one of those 'your face' jokes, but I was honestly humoured by her face.

"_Excuse me?_" Her friends had formed a group behind her. She strutted up to me, bending down to look me in the eye.

"You're excused." And with that, I turned around. I didn't get far though, because Mila stuck her leg out and intertwined it with my right ankle. Seeing the floor come to meet my face, I raised my hands to soften my fall, but it didn't happen. Derek had a firm grip around my arms and was pulling me up into a standing position.

"Thanks." I mumbled, bringing my ankle up to rub it.

I looked up find Derek studying Mila, who was behind me.

"Why did you catch her? She's so weird." Mila giggled with her friends.

Derek narrowed his eyes at her. "Because she's a lot nicer than you are." He grumbled walked away.

When gym finished, I retreated to the change rooms. As I was pulling my grey hoodie over my head, chatter suddenly filled the room. The voices belonged to Mila and her friends. I quickly pulled on my blue skinny jeans and exited the stall and out the door, being as silent and invisible as possible so I wouldn't be ridiculed more.

I made my way out and attended legal studies. Mrs Brown talked about roads and speed limits for the whole lesson. I didn't know where she came up with that, but she definitely had a knack for getting off topic.

I ended up having to walk home again. Andrew had a meeting and Gwen went out grocery shopping. I made my way through down the streets, through the mall and weaved my way through the trees. Now that I knew my way home, I was walking more often. It's not that Andrew and Gwen were busy all the time; I just enjoyed the walk despite the cold weather.

I was home for not even five minutes when the doorbell sounded throughout the house. Making my way down the stairs, I nearly fell but managed to save myself.

Opening the door, I was met by a blonde boy – Simon.

"Hey, Chloe. Is Andrew around?" He asked me.

"No, he's in a meeting."

"That's okay. Dad just wanted me to give this back." He handed me a red toolbox.

"Thanks," I said as I took it. "Did you want to come in?"

"I promised I'd play some basketball with Derek. You can come if you want." He invited me.

"Mm, I think I'll pass after today." I ended up telling him about the incident with Mila.

"Wow, I knew she was a sinister bitch but I never thought she'd be capable of physically hurting somebody."

"Oh well, your brother saved my butt. Twice. Well technically it was my fac-"

He cut me off. "What?"

I ended up telling him about Derek getting in the way of the ball, and stopping me from falling.

Simon laughed at my story. "Well you should feel pretty special if Derek's saving your butt. He definitely wouldn't do that for anybody else."

I smiled.

"So, are you up for basketball or not?" He asked.

I thought about it. "Sorry, Simon. I might just stay in and do some homework; I need to get this maths homework down." I smiled weakly.

"That's fine. Maybe another time. I'll see you later, Chloe." He said, and with that, he walked away.

I set all my homework out on the dining table, debating where to start. When it was all spread out, it was pretty much a mountain of papers. A mountain of art, maths, legal studies and biology. I suppressed a groan and sat down, pushing all of the papers away except for maths. I still didn't understand the work so I needed to study badly. I set the sheets of math out in front of me and stared down at them.

'_What the hell does that mean?'_ I thought to myself, letting my head hit the desk. There was no way I was going to get through the year without needing a tutor. After making many attempts at understanding the maths homework, I gave up. If I needed a tutor then… whatever.

* * *

><p>I wasn't too thrilled about any of my homework, but I managed to complete my biology assignment and the tasks we had to do for legal studies.<p>

By the time I finished what I needed to do, Andrew and Gwen still hadn't made an appearance and it was getting dark.

_Traffic._

I made my way to the sofa in the living room and turned the television on. Flicking through the channels, there wasn't much to watch so I resorted to picking out a DVD. I popped the disc in the player and set it up.

Half way through the movie, my eyes started to droop and I was almost asleep when a loud bang startled me.

"WHAT THE FU-" I slapped my own hands over my mouth. If there was a murderer in the house, it wouldn't be a good idea to start swearing loudly. Peering out the window, neither Gwen nor Andrew's cars were parked out in the yard so it was evident that they weren't home yet.

The noise sounded again, a dull thud like something dropping on the floor.

So what do I do? I go and investigate of course. Because in every scary situation the stupid heroine goes to investigate.

Being as quiet as I could be, I climbed the stairs, avoiding the ones that creaked.

_Thud._

Oh God. Oh God._ OH GOD._

_Thud._

I crept along the hallway, towards the sound. As I turned left, I caught a glimpse of… well… I don't even know. It was tempting to just run all the way to my room and hide under the covers, but that wouldn't save me. There was somebody in my house, and I was home alone. I considered sprinting over to Kit's house, but I was slow and uncoordinated. I'd fall and either impale myself on a branch or whoever it was would catch me.

A movement to my right.

I snapped my head around to see a glimpse of the intruder going through the open door to Andrew's study. Creeping up behind it, I realised that I had nothing to guard myself with.

_Damnit. _

I didn't even think, I just kept making my way to the study and through the door, being silent and hoping I could catch whoever it was off guard.

Once I got a full view of the small room, it was me that was caught off guard. The room was empty except for the furniture but being paranoid, I checked every corner and hiding spot possible in that room. I even checked out the window, but it was locked.

'_Going crazy at the age of fifteen. Good job, Chloe!'_

I shook the thoughts from my head and went back downstairs, dropping myself down on the sofa and pulling a blanket up my body.

Andrew and Gwen finally came home. It turned out that Gwen went to meet an old girlfriend of hers and they caught up for coffee. Andrew's meeting finished later than he had intended and was a bit peeved, so they both went to bed. I soon followed up the stairs and retreated to my own bedroom.

I tried to sleep, but I kept hearing the noise from before.

_Thud._

_Thud. _

It was as if the sound was coming from inside my head this time. I couldn't block it out so I grabbed my iPod out of my pocket and blasted the music through the earphones. The noise helped to block out the re-occurring thud that sounded in my head, but it didn't stop me from questioning what I saw.

'_What the hell was that?' _I thought to myself, feeling a bit crazy. Eventually, I managed to drift into a not-so-peaceful sleep.

_Thud. _

_The shuffling of feet sounded overhead. I was in my house, but it looked different. It looked darker. _

_Following the sounds up the stairs, I saw an endless hallway. _

_Laughter. There was laughter. More than one laugh too. It sounded like there were many people._

_Crimson red handprints painted the walls of the hallway and the doors. Tables and vases had crashed to the ground, leaving glass scattered over the carpet. I didn't care; I just walked straight through it, hoping to find the source of the noise. _

_The smears of red stopped at one door. I reached to open it, but there was no knob. Giving it a slight push with the tips of my fingers, it swung right open to reveal darkness. The only things visible were two dots of red, like glowing eyes. _

_Finding a light switch with my fingers, I flipped it. _

_Nothing._

_I felt my back being pressed up against the wall, and then I was paralysed. _

_Light suddenly flooded the room and I could see a figure. It moved around the small desk in a blur of black – faster than humanly possible. Books flew off the shelf, and furniture came crashing down to the floor. The chair behind the desk was raised into the air and flung against the wall with enough force to shatter it into pieces. Bits of wood flew at my face, but I couldn't raise my arms to shield myself. I tried to run, but my legs wouldn't want to oblige. _

_Papers and objects flew around the room as the black figure continued to move in a blurred motion. I could feel a sharp sting in my arm and looked down to find a blue piece of vase lodged in the skin, the cut oozing crimson red. _

_The blur of black started to slow, and made its way closer to me, red eyes glowing closer, and that was when I noticed them: Bodies on the floor, surrounded by blood. I recognized one of them as Gwen, her blonde hair matted with the red, sticky liquid. Her eyes were missing, replaced by gaping black holes. Blood seeped from her mouth and down her chin; her clothes were drenched in it, staining the white shirt red. _

_I swung my gaze up, trying to find the figure. Instead I found a transparent looking Gwen. She didn't look bloody, and her eyes were still intact. I looked back at Gwen's disfigured body, then back to the Gwen that was standing in front of me._

"_Chloe, run!" She cried to me._

"_What?"_

"_They killed me, Chloe. Now run!"_

"_Who are they?" Worry seeping into my voice. _

"_The Ed-" and then she was gone. Disappeared. _

_I took another glance at the pile of bodies lying on the floor, and then started to spin around. Soon enough, I found myself running down the hallway. A sharp blow to the back of my head sent me flying towards the ground…_

I jolted awake, panting and sweating. Taking a glance at the clock, it revealed to be early in the morning.

I shook the dream from my mind and switched the bedside light on.

'_It was just a dream.'_ I mumbled to myself as I pinched the bridge of my nose.

I made several attempts at getting back to sleep, all useless. Eventually, I settled for reading a book and listening to my iPod.

_What did my dream mean? What was that figure? Why could I see Gwen's ghost?_ I asked myself all of these questions, but I knew I wouldn't be getting any answers.

All I knew was that I wouldn't be sleeping for a while.

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><p><strong>And there's chapter five! I'm somewhat pleased with how it ended this time.<strong>

**As always, reviews would be absolutely amazing :)**


	6. Tutoring?

**I'm not Kelley Armstrong.**

**This chapter is a little shorter, but I hope you guys still enjoy it. Tell me what you think!**

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><p>I sat at my desk in English, waiting for Mr Robbs to get to me. My leg shook out of anticipation as I watched him saunter down the isle of seats and desks on the other side of the room. I dropped my head to the desk while I waited for him to stop in front of me, the impact making a dull <em>THUMP.<em>

"Saunders," he said and I looked up. "Good job." He handed me the paper face down, so I didn't see the grade I had received just yet. As he walked away, I slowly flipped the paper over to reveal the bright red letter.

_**B+**_

I got a B+, a _B+. _I could have danced. Saying that I was happy with my grade would be an understatement. Being undereducated made it difficult for me to keep up with a lot of my school work, but I was doing fine in English class. It was math that I struggled with. I knew I'd have to get a tutor at some point because I was cutting it fine with my grade in maths. Mila was in a lot of my classes and she never missed a beat when I failed a test or got less than a B. I was first on her list of people to ridicule.

I looked happily down at my paper and stuffed it in the back of my folder while Mr Robbs informed us of a new task.

"In a couple of weeks we'll be starting on group writing. I'll be teaming you each up with a partner and you'll be left to make up your own story. It will be longer than the short stories that I just handed back. You'll be getting a criteria sheet when we actually start the assignment and you'll be finding out who your partner is on the same day." Mr Robbs instructed.

I liked the idea of the assignment and I enjoyed writing. This would be a breeze; I just hoped that I wouldn't get paired up with Mila or any of her bitchy friends because… well… let's just say that it would not go down well at all. If I was lucky then I'd be paired with Brooke.

We were dismissed from class and I made my way to maths, only to be stopped by Liz.

"Hey, Chloe. The winter dance is coming up and we need people on the committee. Would you consider signing up?" She asked, bouncing on her toes.

"Sorry, Liz. I think I'll have to pass up on that." I gave her an apologetic smile.

"Oh… okay. You will still come though, right? We can get all dressed up and get dates and-"

I cut her off. "I really doubt that I would be able to find a date, Liz. Thanks for letting me know but dances aren't my thing. Sorry."

She shot me a sad smile. "Sure, that's fine. I guess they're not for everybody any way. I'll see you in theatre." And with that, she walked towards her next class.

I weaved through the sea of students in my attempt to get to math class on time. Making it with seconds to spare, Mr Spader glared at me as I made my way to the seat next to Simon. We were given a sheet to complete with the person next to us and I teamed up with Simon.

"You're doing it wrong." He said.

"You do it then." I replied.

He snorted a laugh and explained the formula to me. I still didn't understand after his fourth attempt so he gave up and jotted down the answers himself. Mr Spader watched us the whole time. He treated me as if I were stupid – which I wasn't. I was perfectly capable of learning math, but it took a while. There was no doubt he would hook me up with a tutor. I just hoped that when that happened, the tutor would be patient with me because I'd need a lot of time.

Simon had almost finished the task when he looked up.

"So, I'm sure Liz got into you about the dance." He laughed.

"Yeah, and she took it a step further. She tried to convince me into going. Even talked to me about getting a date."

Simon let out a fake gasp. "Oh that girl has gone too far this time!"

I slapped his arm playfully. Simon and I were pretty good friends now. We weren't exactly best friends but we talked when we had classes together. He was great to talk to – quite the charmer, actually.

"So… you're not going?" He asked, sounding almost sad.

"Nope. Dances aren't my thing. Too uncoordinated for that."

"You should go. We have one every year and they're usually pretty fun. But the dance is months away, so if you change your mind, I'll gladly be your date." He said with a wink.

I felt my cheeks redden at his comment. I wasn't interested in Simon – not like that, anyway. We were friends and that was all. He was good to talk to, but he had a knack for interrupting and getting off topic. I definitely couldn't see him as date material.

"T-thanks, Simon, but I really doubt I'll be going." I told him with an apologetic smile. "You should ask Liz." I said. Liz really liked Simon so I hoped that he would ask her.

"Yeah, I might just do that." He said, and returned to showing me how to do the math problems while I pretended to understand.

At the end of the lesson when the class was clear of students, Mr Spader pulled me aside, asking to talk to me.

"Chloe, I've been assessing your work and I believe that it would be best for you to get into tutoring. It's important that you don't fail any more tests and I think you can benefit greatly from getting a tutor." He said in his usual condescending tone that he seemed to save for just me.

"I think that would be for the best, too." I replied, trying not to sound like the idiot that he made me out to be.

"Fantastic! Would today after school be sufficient for you?"

"That would be fine. Thank you, Mr Spader."

"No worries. Meet your tutor in D13, I've already made arrangements with him and he'll be waiting after the bell. You'll meet him after school every Friday."

As I left the class room, I jotted down the room number on my hand so that I wouldn't forget where to go. I didn't let Mr Spader know, of course. He didn't need to think that I was dumber than he already thought I was.

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><p>The day flew by quickly and before I knew it, I was on my way towards room D13. I made a stop at my locker to grab my textbook and notepad. Rummaging through my locker, I found a blue piece of paper. I grabbed it and unfolded it to reveal the one word.<p>

'_Ugly'_

Typical. I had been getting these notes ever since I started at school. They consisted of many hurtful words. I stuffed the small bit of paper in the back of my notepad and made my way through the halls, towards tutoring.

I swung the door open to reveal a tall, dark haired boy hunched over one of the tables. He looked up as the noise from the door startled him.

It was none other than Derek Souza.

I smiled at him as I made my way to sit on the other side of the desk. Derek and I had talked before, and despite what people said about him, he was actually really nice. Even in a conversation he didn't speak a lot, he grunted and grumbled answers, but he still wasn't the awful person that everybody made him out to be. I was happy that Derek was my tutor. Truth be told, I thought he was kind of cute.

"Hey, Derek." I said, tucking a strand of my hair behind my left ear.

"Hey." He gestured for me to sit down across from him.

I sat down and pulled out my textbook and notepad from my bag, the blue piece of paper falling out of the back onto the table. Derek must have seen it because he spoke.

"What's that?" He asked me.

"A note from my secret admirer." I said sarcastically.

He raised an eyebrow at me and I looked at my hands, feeling a little down because of the note.

"Can we just focus on maths?" I asked him.

"Okay. So what exactly is it that you don't understand about maths?" He asked me.

"Everything. Well, I know the basics like adding and subtracting, I wasn't really taught anything else."

"Have you been living under a rock or wha-"

"In an orphanage, actually." I said, cutting him off.

He slapped his head with the palm of his hand. "Sorry, I forgot who I was talking to." He mumbled. Kit and his kids were the only people who knew I was adopted.

"It's fine." I sighed as I opened up my textbook to page 36.

I soon found out that Derek was a super genius. He was well advanced in science and maths – no wonder why Mr Spader chose him to tutor me. He definitely knew what he was talking about and was good at explaining things, even if I didn't quite grasp all of the formulas.

"So… _x _equals four?" I asked, feeling stupid.

"You forgot to carry the one." He pointed out.

I let my head hit the desk and groaned. "I'm never going to understand this. All I'm doing is wasting your time."

"You'll understand it eventually." It was obvious his patience was growing short but he tried not to show it. I had to give him credit – I wasn't always easy to deal with. "Now come on, try again. Just remember to carry the numbers when you do your working out. Otherwise your answer will be way off."

I made a few more attempts at the problems in the book, each time feeling more confident.

After an hour I closed the text book. "Did you want to finish up for today?"

"Depends." He said as he took the sheets of paper from my hands.

He studied the papers and marked any mistakes I made. His brow furrowed as he neared the bottom of the first page and chewed his lip slightly.

"Do you think you understand it a little better?" He asked.

"It's going to take a while, but I guess this helped. Thanks, Derek."

He grunted a response and we left the classroom. I had stupidly forgotten my jacket and the freezing wind bit straight through my clothes and sent my hair in all different directions.

Regretting having to walk home, I walked down the stairs and through the car park.

"How are you getting home?" A voice said behind me.

I jumped and spun around. He was so quiet that I didn't even hear him walking behind me. "God, I thought you went the other way." I sighed. "I usually walk home."

He raised his eyebrow at me and then looked around to find the heavy breeze picking up. Derek motioned me to follow him. "I'll give you a ride."

"A-are you sure?" I asked him.

"It's not like I'm going out of my way. We're neighbours. Now come on, get in." He rumbled.

Derek dropped me home after a comfortable ride of silence. I thanked him and ran up the path to my house.

I closed the door behind me and went to make my way up the stairs when something caught my attention. Andrew and Gwen were talking – no, not talking, they were fighting. I peered around the corner to get a view of the kitchen. Gwen was crying. Her mascara had left black streaks down her face. She was pulling at her hair as she yelled at Andrew, who was also yelling. He slammed his fist down on the bench, making both Gwen and I flinch. It was the first time that Andrew and Gwen had fought since I had moved in. They seemed so in love, it made me sad to see them fight.

I left them and retreated to my room. In such a big house, I could still hear the screaming that was coming from the kitchen.

There was nothing I could do to stop it – Andrew and Gwen didn't even know I was home yet. I pulled a hoodie out of my drawer and over my head; I then gathered my sketchbook and pencils and tucked them in one of my bags. Then I flew down the stairs that were connected to the balcony outside my room.

There was a small log that sat near the bed of a stream not too far from the house, but far enough that Gwen or Andrew couldn't see me from the kitchen.

I spent a long enough time staring out into the woods and gazing into the water of the stream. Flashes of orange caught my attention as the small fish made their way up towards the lake where the water ended. Rustles in the bushes came from every direction. I could only assume the noises were made by small animals.

It was so peaceful, I almost forgot about school and all my problems. I pulled out my sketchpad and pencils out of my bag and started to sketch the beautiful scenery in front of me. The sketch was rough, but I could always polish it up when I got more time.

A small, brown rabbit hopped past me and stopped where the stream met the muddy bank, getting the fur on its feet matted with the mud. It soon hurried off in the direction of Kit's house, which I had almost a clear view from my new private area.

I leaned back against the trunk of the tree, closing my eyes. Just being there put me at ease. The sound of the water running down the stream calmed me. I felt the rays of the sun beat down on my face through the trees. Then wind from before had slowed and was now a nice breeze. I felt relaxed, like nothing could ever bother me. I almost forgot everything. Almost.

I now had my own little spot that made me feel happy, it was just for me.

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><p><strong>Chapter six is done. I have an idea for the next chapter already, but I'm not quite sure if I'll put it up. If I do, it'll be short and sweet and will probably be updated within the next few days. <strong>

**Let me know what you guys think of this chapter, and if there's a certain something that you want to read, don't hesitate to add that. **


	7. X Equals four?

**I'm not Kelley Armstrong.**

**This chapter is a bit different. Kind of a fill in chapter that just popped up in my mind as I was writing the last one. This one is in third person POV, which I'm not used to writing in but let me know how I go. It's set half way through the last chapter.**

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><p>Derek studied Chloe as her brow furrowed in concentration. Her eyes were glued to the page full of numbers in front of her as she tapped the pencil on the desk. She scrawled some numbers down on her page after reading the formula over and over again. Staring down at the paper triumphantly, she handed the piece of paper to the tall, dark haired boy with a dazzling grin on her face. His emerald green eyes scanned the page until he stumbled upon a mistake. Turning the paper around to show her, he pointed at question five.<p>

"_X_ equals four?" Chloe asked, hopeful.

"You forgot to carry the one here." He jabbed his finger at her working out.

Chloe dropped her head to the desk and let out a frustrated groan.

"I'm never going to understand this. All I'm doing is wasting your time." She said, feeling stupid. Derek was a genius, so she knew why her math teacher had assigned him as her tutor. Chloe felt inferior compared to him, she didn't like feeling dumb.

Derek wasn't used to consoling people. "You'll understand it eventually." He said, trying not to sound condescending. His patience was growing short, but he wanted to make an effort for Chloe's sake. "Now come on, try again. Just remember to carry the numbers when you do your working out. Otherwise your answer will be way off." He gave her another sheet of paper with more math questions printed on it.

Chloe took the paper, feeling less than confident this time.

Again, Derek watched her as she made an attempt at solving the problems. He thought she was pretty and that was strange for him. Never in his life had he paid any attention to girls but Chloe was different. Her blonde hair stopped just below her shoulders. It looked soft and touchable. Freckles scattered the bridge of her nose and her cheekbones; it gave her an almost innocent look. From what Derek had seen during gym class, she was petite but in the short few weeks that Chloe had been at the school, she had started to fill out a bit which made her body look more her age. What really struck Derek about Chloe were her eyes. The blueness of her eyes captivated him. He never thought that I girl would catch his attention like Chloe did, but he knew there was something about her that made him want to be with her.

There was one problem, though. Simon. Derek knew that Simon had a crush on Chloe, but Simon liked a lot of girls. He'd date one for a while, and then dump them so easily, without even blinking. Derek knew he could never compete with his brother. Simon was charming, good looking and friendly. Derek was none of those. His face could be the 'before' shot for an acne commercial and he had the charm of a dead fish. There was no denying that Derek wanted to be more like his brother if it meant being with Chloe. Though with his luck, he knew that Simon would get the girl. He always did, no question. Girls weren't interested in Derek; they were interested in handsome, blonde haired boys with Asian features and a killer smile, not some dark, brooding kid who barely talked.

Derek didn't realise that he had been staring at Chloe until she tilted her head up. "Are you okay?" She asked. "You look like you've completely spaced out." She said, flashing white teeth as she smiled.

He shook his head of the thoughts and then nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine." He mumbled, turning his head away to hide the blush that crept onto his face.

Chloe nodded and went back to her work. She hid her smile behind her hair. The look that Derek had on his face had amused her. It almost looked like he had been staring at her but she couldn't be sure. She shook her head of her thoughts and returned to the intimidating numbers on the page in front of her. Sighing, her pencil made contact with the paper as she made another attempt at scrawling down the answers.

After an hour of constant battle with the papers, Chloe closed her textbook and scanned her eyes over the last three pages that she had just filled out.

"Do you want to finish up for today?" She asked Derek.

"Depends." He took the pages and studied them. His brow furrowed as his eyes lowered to the bottom of the sheet. Derek raised his eyebrows at how much Chloe had improved in just one hour. Over all, he was impressed. She had still made some small mistakes here and there but it was still a great improvement. He looked up at Chloe to find her twiddling her thumbs and chewing on her lower lip nervously.

Derek grunted in approval and handed her back the papers. "Do you think you understand it a little better?"

Chloe shrugged. "It's going to take a while, but I guess this helped. Thanks, Derek." She said as she tucked the papers in the back of her math folder and stuffed it in her bag, and then flung it over her shoulder.

The pair walked out into the student parking lot of their school. Chloe began to make her way home, regretting leaving her jacket in her room. She had almost made her way out of the parking lot when she heard a voice behind her.

"How are you getting home?"

Chloe, startled, squeaked and spun around on her heel. She would have tumbled to the ground if it weren't for Derek's firm grip on her arm.

"Do you not make noise when you walk?" She asked, trying to get her heart back to a normal pace.

"Not really." He said with a shrug. "How are you getting home?"

"I usually walk."

Derek raised an eyebrow at her. "Come on, I'll give you a ride." He said as he gestured towards his car.

"A-are you sure?" Chloe stuttered.

"It's not like I'm going out of my way. We're neighbours. Now come on, get in." Derek made his way to his car and Chloe followed, trying to keep the same pace as him. The blonde girl hopped in the passenger seat as Derek held it open for her. Just as Chloe had fastened her seat belt, Derek was in the driver's seat with the keys in the ignition.

Derek drove Chloe home in comfortable silence. Every now and then he would peek at her out of the corner of his eye. Each time he did this, she was staring down at her hands.

Finally, he pulled into her drive way and slowed the car to a stop.

"Thank you, Derek. For the tutoring _and_ the lift." She turned to him and smiled. Girls never smiled at Derek. Everybody felt intimidated by him, so it was nice to have somebody who was somewhat comfortable around him that wasn't family.

Derek didn't smile back though. He just nodded and grunted. "Just let me know if you ever want a ride home."

The blonde girl smiled gratefully at him once more and got out of the car, rushing towards the door as Derek watched her. When she was safely inside, he left.

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><p>Chloe was welcomed home by shouting. Andrew and Gwen hadn't noticed the front door open and close; they remained oblivious to everything but their own insults and yelling about who said what and who was at fault. The older blonde woman, Gwen, was pulling at her hair as she shouted over the top of Andrew, trying to get her point across. The man bought his hand up, as if to punch her but quickly slammed it down on the kitchen bench, causing both Gwen and Chloe to flinch as she peered around the corner. The shouts continued as Chloe dragged herself up the stairs, feeling a little upset in her sudden mood change.<p>

She flopped down on her bed and studied the ceiling, finding nothing of interest. Gwen and Andrew could still be heard in the kitchen, both shouting over the top of each other. The woman's voice was becoming hoarse the more she screamed at her husband. Andrew was swearing like a sailor at poor Gwen.

Chloe was tired of hearing their screams over her music, so she did the first thing she thought of and grabbed her sketchpad and pencils, and then stuffed them in her backpack. Leaving her room by the balcony, she made her way into the woods. After a few minutes of walking, she looked back and could barely see the house. There was no way that Andrew or Gwen could see her now. The further Chloe walked, the quieter the shouting became. She walked until she couldn't hear a trace of the argument that her foster parents faced.

Behind a thick layer of branches, she found a small clearing next to a stream. A log was placed against a tree where she decided to sit and pull out her sketchbook. She drew the beautiful scene in front of her as the fish made their way up and down the stream. Her sketch turned out rough but she decided that she could always do a better copy of it when she got back to her room.

For a while, Chloe sat back and let the sun beat down on her face, not knowing that she was being watched.

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><p>Derek had dropped Chloe off and drove the small distance to his house. He had heard Andrew and Gwen yelling at each other while he was parked outside their house, waiting for Chloe to go inside. He felt bad for leaving her there, but how was he supposed to explain to her that he could hear them when she couldn't? He closed the front door behind him to be greeted by his father.<p>

"Hey, son. How did tutoring go?" Kit asked to Derek.

"Fine." He grunted. "I'm going for a run."

"Be careful." Kit called as his son bounded up the stairs.

Stepping into his room, Derek strode towards the cupboard that held his clothes. He pulled off his baggy jacket and replaced it with a loose shirt. His pants were replaced with black gym shorts. He draped his navy blue jacket over his arm and pulled on his running shoes as he headed out the back door into the woods.

Now that the sun had come out, Derek left his jacket on the branch of a tree where the forest started. He ran through the jungle of branches and leaves and decided to go off his usual track, so he made his way over the rocks in the stream and went east – towards Andrew and Gwen's house. A small, brown rabbit hopped in his path as he came to a stop, then it quickly scurried away into a nearby bush. Animals weren't fond of Derek, most living things weren't. The boy decided to take a break and slumped down at the roots of a large tree that stood a few feet away from the stream.

A movement caught his attention on the other side of the water. The pretty blonde girl he had been tutoring less than an hour ago was making her way towards the bed of the stream, and settled for sitting on a log with her back propped up against a tree. She dumped her back pack at her feet and pulled out a black covered sketch book. Derek watched as the blonde girl looked at the scenery in front of her and started sketching in her book. He considered approaching her and striking up a conversation, but he didn't want to interrupt her drawing. The boy settled for admiring her from afar, feeling ashamed of his lack of social skills. He studied her face in the distance, how her nose scrunched up when she was concentrating. _Cute._

'_I could just run past, stop, and act as if I stumbled upon her by coincidence.'_ He thought to himself. But Derek didn't want to scare the poor girl. Although he didn't get the same reaction from Chloe as he got from anybody else, he still felt insecure. Most people at his school avoided him like the plague, whereas Chloe wasn't bothered by his existence – and he liked that.

The blonde set her sketchbook aside and looked around her once more at the scenery before leaning back against the base of the tree behind her. Derek heard her let out a content sigh as she closed her eyes. He so badly wanted to approach her and he knew that she wouldn't turn him away, so what the hell was stopping him?

"Just man up." He mumbled to himself furiously as he stepped out of the bushes, into the view of the small, blonde girl.

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><p><strong>I'm going to leave it there because I want what happens next to be in Chloe's POV. Hopefully this chapter isn't too bad. Reviews would be much appreciated!<strong>


	8. Nobody Challenges Derek Souza

**I would've had this up earlier but I had some trouble with this chapter and where it would go. I probably re-wrote this at least three or four times because I just wasn't happy with how it was going. There was one point where I had about ten pages and actually deleted eight of them to start over again. Now that's dedication.**

**I'm not Kelley Armstrong. I own nothing.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p><em>Snap.<em>

My head turned towards the noise that came from my right as I straightened up. '_Probably just that rabbit.' _I thought to myself and leaned back against the trunk of the tree behind me, enjoying the heat of the sun which was fading. Clouds quickly moved overheard and darkened the forest a little. It was peaceful, quiet enough that I could hear the tinkling of the stream that took place in front of me. Every now and then a fish would swim past, making its way in the direction of what I guessed was a lake. I needed to suss that out some time soon.

_Crunch._

All right, that was way too loud to be a rabbit, more like a large wolf hurdling through the trees, making its way to me in order to eat my face. I was about to up and leave when I saw something out the corner of my eye – the source of the noise. A large, dark haired boy stepped through the branches on the other side of the stream and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw me. It was Derek in all his glory. I gave him a once-over and took in his appearance. The muscles of his arms bulged out of the short sleeves of his shirt and I could've sworn my eyes nearly popped out of my head. Under all those baggy clothes, he was actually muscular. I would've guessed over weight or stocky with the way he dressed. He was wearing black gym shorts and running shoes, giving away the fact that he had been for a jog.

When I got over the initial shock of being scared half to death, I regained my breath and let myself relax. "Jesus Derek, I nearly had a heart attack." I exclaimed, holding my hand over my heart. I let out an uneasy laugh as he gave me an apologetic look.

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He said as he looked down at his shoes. "What are you doing out here?"

I jabbed my finger back towards my house. "Andrew and Gwen didn't even notice me come home." I rolled my eyes. "So I came out here. What about you?" I asked, even though it was obvious. He had sweat pouring down his forehead, plastering his dark hair to his face. I had seen Derek run along a track before, more than once actually, but he didn't need to know that. He didn't need to think that I was some creeper that watched him from my bedroom window – even though that did happen once out of complete coincidence… seriously, I swear.

"Decided to go for a run." He crossed the stream by carefully stepping on the rocks that stuck out of the surface of the water and landed safely on the side closer to me. The boy sat down on another unoccupied log that sat at the base of the tree opposite from my own. "So what were you drawing?" He asked.

Had Derek been watching me? I didn't even have my sketchbook out when he found me – it was safely stashed in my bag. It was possible that he ran past before when I _was_ drawing and didn't stop but I didn't even see him.

Ignoring the insecure feeling I felt in my gut, I gestured around us, at the trees and the stream. "Pretty much all of this." I said.

"Can I see?" He bowed his head in the direction of my bag, which held my book and I visibly hesitated.

"Look, no pressure." He said and held his hands up.

"N-no. It's okay." I said as I pulled my sketchbook from my bag that was sitting at my ankles. Bringing it up to rest on my lap, I started flipping through the pages until I reached the picture that matched what was in front of me. I gave it a once over glance and handed it to Derek.

He studied the picture after setting it down on his lap. As he studied the drawing, he traced the lines of a tree with his index finger and nodded his head, taking in the rough grey sketch.

"This is really good."

I couldn't stop the heat of a blush rising to my cheeks. "T-thanks. It's not done yet." I mumbled as I took back my book.

"Simon would be impressed. He likes to draw too."

I had seen Simon's work in art class. There was no denying he was talented and there was also no denying that I was jealous of him

"He's very good at it." I said.

"Yeah, he wants to get into the special design course. The only thing holding him back is the fact that he won't stop drawing those damn cartoons." He said with a smirk. I let out a laugh. It was true; all Simon would draw was cartoons. Our art teacher went nuts at him whenever he handed in an assignment because he'd twist the criteria to fit his own style. He just couldn't help himself. Just the other day he had admitted to barely passing last year's art for the same reason.

"He has a knack for it though." I said and Derek grunted in agreement.

For a while, we just sat there, not saying a thing. Derek looked out into the woods while I studied him. The flush in his cheeks from running had toned down a bit and his skin had dried of the sweat. His hair remained hanging in front of his face – it was in desperate need of a haircut. He stared intently out into the woods, following a small bird fly through the trees with his emerald green eyes as he leaned back, resting on the tree behind him.

I sighed and leaned back as well, closing my eyes and enjoying the peace and silence.

"It's peaceful out here." I heard Derek's voice rumble quietly.

"Yeah, I might just spend the rest of my life out here." I joked and pulled my knees up to my chest.

"You wouldn't survive one night out here." He teased. I opened my eyes to find that stupid, trade-mark smirk plastered on his face. I scowled at him. "What? You just don't seem the type of girl that would… well… survive camping outdoors one night." He said.

Oh. Hell. No!

"Wipe that look off your face. I bet you I could." I jutted my chin out defiantly and crossed my arms. It must have been quite a sight because Derek let out a chuckle and raised his eyebrows at me.

"You want to actually make a bet out of it?" He asked, still modelling that damn smirk.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't." I made an attempt to copy his smirk, but I knew I failed at imitating his expression.

"You wouldn't challenge me." He crossed his arms and cleared his face of emotion, looking down at me.

He wanted to see how far he could push me. If he wanted a bet, then he had one.

"I'm challenging you right now."

"Nobody challenges me." His smirk reappeared.

"Hm. Well you'll see." I said, shooting him my most dazzling smile and sat back, taking in his expression. Again, his face cleared of emotion and he uncrossed his arms. He opened his mouth as if to say something, and then quickly closed it. A frown replaced the smirk that he modelled just seconds before. He didn't say anything in reply, just sat there watching me with that frown plastered on his face, like he was studying me.

"Stop frowning at me." I demanded.

Derek rid his face of the creases that were set on his forehead, leaving his expression blank but he kept his gaze on me. Finally, he sat back. "You're not going to challenge me." I heard him mumble to himself, probably thinking that I didn't hear. He shook his head, casting his eyes down to his shoes.

I paused. "Excuse me?"

"What?"

"I heard that." I said.

"Well you do have ears."

"And what makes you think I wouldn't challenge you?" I asked, standing up and crossing my arms over my chest.

"Look at you; five foot nothing, blonde haired and blue eyed." He wiggled his finger up and down in my direction. "Now look at me." He stood up to tower over me. "I'm so tall I can barely fit through doors and everybody avoids me like the plague."

"Fine then, you have yourself a challenge."

He snorted out of amusement.

I glowered up at him.

"You can't intimidate me." He said, knowing what I was trying to do. _Damn._

I continued to glower. We stood like that for a while and from third person perspective, that would have been quite the sight. The tiny girl glaring up at the large boy – just imagine.

All too quickly, Derek bought his hands up to the side of his face and widened his eyes in front of me. "Boo!" He exclaimed, looking down at me.

I shrieked and fell back on my butt. Derek suppressed a chuckle and held out his hand to me. Grabbing it, he hauled me to my feet and once again, I stood in front of him. I mumbled a "Thank you" and looked up. The boy's face was full of amusement as he watched me wipe the dirt off my jeans. "You just couldn't help yourself, could you?"

"Nope." He chuckled but his face softened quickly. "Are you okay?" He asked, brow furrowed.

Truth be told, I was okay, but he didn't need to know that. Maybe I could fool him. I wanted to see how gullible he was.

"Y-yeah. I-I'm fine." I said, avoiding all eye contact. I was never that great of an actress but who's to say I couldn't try?

"Chloe…" he started. My name came out in a stern tone and he gave me a pointed look.

"I-I'm okay. Really." I fake stuttered and rubbed the back of my head.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" He held up two.

"Four?" I told him and his eyes widened. "No, six! You're holding six up… or maybe three. Definitely three." I said and gave him my best shit-eating grin.

Derek easily caught on to what I was doing and scowled at me. "That is _not_ funny. I thought you were hurt."

"And I'm sure you care oh-so much." I said jokingly. "Calm, Derek. I'm fine!" I patted his arm and sat back down on my log. Derek grunted and retreated to his own across from me.

I leaned back and realised that the sun had already started to set, leaving the sky a beautiful orangey-pink colour. It had gotten cold and goose bumps started to rise on my arms. Foolishly, I left my jacket on my bed in my room. I didn't want to go back into the house yet; it was nice out in the clearing. Rubbing my hands up and down my arms, I tried to warm myself up. I noticed Derek, still wearing his running clothes. He must have been freezing.

"You know you don't have to stay, right?" I told him. "It's getting cold, you should head back inside."

"Is that your way of getting rid of me?" He asked me.

"Take it how you want." I said and laid down across the log, failing at getting comfortable. Eventually I sat up again and looked up at the sky – it was dark and the stars had appeared, the clearing glowed under the light of the moon.

Sighing, I said, "I should probably get back inside any way. It's getting dark."

"Did you want me to walk you back? I mean, it's dark and…" he trailed off.

"I should be fine, thanks though." I flashed him a smile and gathered my things. Flinging my bag over my shoulder, I turned to Derek who was still sitting. "I'll see you on Monday. Bye!"

"See you." He said.

I walked through the tangle of bushes and trees, trying not to lose my balance. At night, being clumsy was terrifying. Every tree root seemed to stick out just enough that I would clip my foot on it enough to make me fall flat on my butt. Branches came out of nowhere, whipping at my arms legs and face. There were definitely going to be some scratches on my arms when I got inside.

The further I walked, the feeling of being watched became stronger. I tried to rush back but ended up tripping over and scraping my elbow. The light of the moon was blocked by the trees above, leaving parts of the forest dark – a perfect opportunity for scary men to snatch up small, blonde teenage girls. Paranoia took over and my hands started to shake, at every turn I expected somebody to grab me and pull me in the other direction.

It was a fair walk from the stream to my house and I was far from it. I was beginning to believe that I was actually lost and that I wasn't going to make it home.

My legs began to quiver from the cold as I rubbed my arms to try and warm them up. The cold wind bit straight though my clothes, leaving goose bumps all over my body.

A flash of silver caught my eye. I snapped my head to the right trying to suss out what it was. A figure walked through the trees, and it wasn't Derek – this person was too short. The silver that caught my eye was the buckle on the figure's belt, gleaming under what small light the moon gave off. The person staggered through the trees, tripping up every now and then but quickly regaining balance.

I saw a cluster of trees that I could easily hide between. Making a bee-line towards the gap, I kept a look out for anybody else that would be walking through other than the figure, who was situated far behind me.

It seemed like an over-dramatic reaction to what could possibly be an innocent person taking a stroll in the woods, but I wasn't going to risk anything. Once I fit myself between the trunks of the trees I looked out and watched the figure move by. It seemed to be clutching its neck with one hand as it staggered, using the other to steady itself on branches and trees. By the clothing, I could tell that it was a man. He wore a flashy suit and had his hair slicked back which ended at the nape of his neck. The look of him was old fashioned, like in those old fifties movies where they dressed really fancy.

The man stumbled into a patch of light, revealing a bloodied shirt and tie. I stifled a scream as I realised that the source of the blood came from his throat. There was a substantial amount if blood covering his shirt and I could tell that he was beyond help.

Tears pricked at my eyes out of fear and worry. Who did this? Were they still in the woods, or were they long gone? Would they come after me if they saw me? _Did_ they see me?

I directed my attention back at the man. He stumbled over a tree root, this time falling over completely, only he didn't get up. I could see movement in his body; he was struggling to hold on. With a hand still clutched to his throat, he convulsed as the life quickly left his body.

Tears flowed freely down my face as I tried to keep my sobs quiet, but failed. My teeth chattered and my hands shook at my sides as I balled them up into fists.

I had to get out of there. Closing my eyes, I tried to recall the way that I came but it didn't come to me. I had forgotten. My mind was jumbled up in what I had just seen and I couldn't focus; I didn't even realise when I started to hyperventilate. Focusing on controlling my breathing was top priority. I was making too much noise in the short breaths that I was taking.

For the second time that night, I heard a snap and a crunch.

_Oh my God. I'm going to die._

I heard my name being whispered. It was a soft voice, tentative. Like somebody approaching a startled animal.

"Chloe?" It was closer.

I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed that I was silent enough.

"Hey, Chloe!" I didn't recognize the voice so I stayed quiet.

Hands gripped my arms and I began to thrash around, trying to get whoever it was away from me.

"Chloe, stop that!" A gruff voice said urgently. "What are you doing?"

With my eyes still tightly shut, I continued to flail my arms around as much as I could, trying to ward off my attacker. I was quickly over powered; there was no denying that I was weak.

I started sobbing again as I used up the last of my energy.

"It's me… Derek. Chloe, what happened?"

I opened my eyes to reveal a startled, yet concerned Derek. "O-o-oh G-God! D-D-D-Derek! D-did you s-s-see t-that?" D-d-did you s-see h-him?" I cried and began to hyperventilate again.

"See who?" Chloe, what's wrong?" He asked as he bent down to my level, rubbing my arms to calm me down. "Why are you so hysterical? Breathe, Chloe. Calm down!" His words were soft but worried.

After a few minutes of trying to get my breath back, my short breaths turned into sobs. My hands moved to cover my face as I cried into them.

I sobbed even harder as Derek pulled me into him and started rubbing circles on my back.

"Come on." He said as he pulled me out of my hiding place. Noticing my hesitation, he added, "I won't let anybody hurt you if that's what you're scared of."

Putting my trust in Derek, I took his outstretched hand and let him lead me back to what I assumed was his place. He took me inside and handed me a glass of water, watching me with concerned eyes as I raised the cup to my mouth with trembling hands. I ended up spilling most of the water over the bench and on my shirt.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry." I buried my head in my hands.

Derek wiped up the water with one hand and rubbed my back with the other. "Hey, it's okay." He set a box of tissues in front of me and plucked one out, handing it to me. "Are you all right to talk?"

I used the tissue to dab at my eyes. After I caught a glimpse at myself in Derek's microwave, I knew that I looked a mess. I wiped at what mascara I could get off and took a deep, shaky breath. "I-I think s-so."

I relayed the scene to Derek in as much detail as I could. He looked at me thoughtfully and nodded. Thankfully, he didn't look at me as if I was crazy and he didn't look the least bit doubtful.

When I finished telling him of what I saw he took a minute to gather his words. "Chloe," He paused. "I didn't see anything there."

"W-w-wh-what? N-no, h-he was t-there. C-clear as d-day!" I exclaimed. "You… you d-don't believe me?" I accused.

"I never said that I didn't believe you, Chloe." He ran a hand through his messy hair and sighed. "Look, stay here, I'll only be a couple of seconds." Derek said as he disappeared around the corner.

Burying my head back in my hands, I took comfort there and tried to forget what I had just seen but I knew Derek would be back in a matter of seconds, so I didn't get too comfortable.

I heard a mumbled conversation between Derek and somebody else – it must have been Kit – and surely enough, the tall, dark haired boy rounded the corner just seconds later, hiding something behind his back.

He took a deep breath and sat down across from me. After a moment's thought, he opened his mouth as if to speak and then quickly closed it. I eyed him closely as he visibly considered his words.

"Okay," He started, "Does the word 'residual' mean anything to you?" He asked slowly.

I shook my head, my face showing obvious confusion.

"How about 'necromancer'?"

"Necro-what?" I asked.

Derek sighed and ran a hand through his hair again. He dropped a book on the table in front of us that read the title, 'Necromancy' in gold letters.

"I'm sorry, Chloe. I really don't know how to put this without you freaking out." He said and flipped the book to a page, spun it around and pointed to a paragraph.

'_Necromancy is a form of magic that has been claimed to link communication between the living and the deceased. This is done by either summoning the spirit of the deceased as an apparition or raising them bodily (sending the spirit back into the body of the deceased). _

I looked up at Derek who was studying me. He then plucked the book from my hands and turned to another page with the heading 'Residuals'.

'_Residuals are composed of left over energy created by a traumatic event. They appear to necromancers and can occur over and over again. These are harmless to whoever witnesses. Unfortunately, there is no way to block them. Noise does not occur during a residual. Most necromancers don't experience residuals until their later years."_

"Residuals… i-is that what I s-saw?" I asked Derek. "I-I-I mean, I didn't hear any sound a-a-and…" I trailed off.

"It could have been." He rumbled.

"A-a-and you t-t-think I'm a n-n-necromancer?" I asked stupidly.

"Well you don't seem the crazy type, so yes."

I tried to process what I had just heard. "How did y-you come up with n-necromancer t-though? L-like, n-not m-many people believe i-in t-that s-stuff."

"I've done some research."

"It's because we're supernatural." A voice said behind me. I spun to see Simon.

"Simon!" Derek growled.

"What? I think she has a right to know where you pulled it from."

"S-so you guys a-are n-n-necromancers too?"

Derek shook his head. "There are other kinds of supernaturals."

"I'm a sorcerer. Kind of like Harry Potter." Simon told me.

"No, your magic sucks, Harry Potter is way more skil-" Tori said as she rounded the corner and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw me. "Skilled." She finished off and narrowed her eyes at me. "I thought we had an agreement on… well, you know… _not telling people!"_ She raised her voice at the end of her sentence.

"I talked to dad about it," said Derek. "She's one of us."

"W-well what a-are you?" I asked.

"Do you have a restart button?" Tori asked, "That stutter is _really _irritating."

I looked down at my hands at her insult and she sighed at me.

"I'm a witch."

"With a 'B'" Simon said under his breath.

Suddenly, he froze in mid-stride as he walked to the fridge.

"I heard that!" Tori exclaimed.

"W-w-what h-h-happened t-to him?" I asked out of panic.

"Tori, let him go." Derek growled.

Tori wiggled her fingers and Simon collapsed to the floor. "Binding spells are oh-so handy." She said as she examined her long fingernails. "Watch your mouth next time, Simon." She called over her shoulder as she disappeared into another room.

"What are you, Derek?"

"He's a-"

"Simon!" Derek cut his brother off. "She doesn't need to know." He lowered his voice.

"Why not?" I asked.

The taller boy – Derek – ran his hands over his face and then through his hair. "I just… I… Well… I'm different." He told me.

"That doesn't mean you can't tell me." I said, disappointed.

"I'll tell you one day, I promise."

"One day could be years from now!" I complained.

Simon and Derek both laughed at my child-like reaction. "Look, you'll find out one day soon." Simon said as he ruffled my hair with his hand and left the room.

I smoothed out my hair, trying to keep the irritation out of my voice. "Did he really have to do that?" I asked and winced at a tug of my hair.

Derek shrugged.

"How did you find me?" I asked.

Derek took a deep breath. "I'm not a stalker, okay?"

"Okay…?"

"I kind of followed you. I only wanted to make sure that you got home fine because it was dark, and then I lost sight of you. Then I heard you crying…"

"How did you hear me crying?" I asked him.

Derek looked down at the floor, internally debating with himself about what he was going to say. "I… I have well… _enhanced _senses." He said with his gaze still intent on the floor.

"As in…" I started for him.

He looked up at me and chewed his bottom lip. "I can hear really well. My sight is well above average and I have pretty good night vision. Smell is a big one too."

"Ah, so you're like a tracking dog."

Derek laughed at my joke and bought his gaze up to meet mine. "I guess you could say that." He said. "How are you feeling?"

"Still a bit shaky but I'll be okay." I lied. "I feel a bit stupid actually."

"Don't feel stupid, you didn't know that it wasn't actually happening. You'll figure it out." He told me with confidence.

"I hope so." I said, pretending to fine a fascination with my own hands. "So… where does all this supernatural stuff extend from?" I asked.

"I think we might leave that for a different day, Chloe. I'll walk you home if you'd like." He offered.

"After what I saw earlier, you're definitely walking me home."

"All right, just hold on a second." For the second time, he disappeared but took longer coming back. When he did, he had changed clothes that were warmer than the ones that he had spent the last couple of hours in. I then realised my own clothing and felt a chill go up my spine just at the sight of myself. Even wearing my jeans, I felt like a popsicle.

"Here you go. It takes a while to walk back and it'll be cold." Derek rumbled as he tossed me something large and black. It landed over my head and I fought against it, trying to get it off. I held it out in front of me – it was a sweater. It must have been Derek's because it was like a tent. Without hesitation, I put on the sweater and mumbled a 'thank you' to him and hopped off the kitchen chair, collecting my back pack as we walked out the door and into the freezing wind.

"I'm sorry; I know that it's a lot to process." He said from beside me as we walked through the woods to get to my house.

"Well at least I found out sooner rather than later." Sighing, I pulled his hoodie closer around my body to fight off the cold. The jumper smelt of cinnamon, which was one of my favourite scents. It helped me relax a little, knowing that Derek was by my side.

Suddenly, something just clicked in my brain. "Oh crap!" I exclaimed.

"What?" Derek seemed startled by my sudden outburst.

"I'm sorry that I attacked you." I mumbled down at my shoes.

It took Derek a while to finally process and recall what happened. "Oh, it's okay."

"No, it's not. I took a swing at your face!"

"Yeah, you actually have a pretty good arm on you there. It hurt like a bitch, but overall I was impressed." He said.

"You're really not mad that I hit you?" I raised my eyebrow.

"Nope."

"Well you're a little strange." I mumbled, forgetting about his super hearing.

"Hey, I think you've discovered that we're all a little strange tonight." He told me, bearing a smirk.

I couldn't help but laugh. The whole situation was completely crazy but it was so real at the same time. "So when will you tell me what you are?" I asked.

"All in good time." He told me.

I sighed. "Fine." I crossed my arms.

Derek walked me up to the steps that connected to the balcony of my room. "Are you sure you're okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine, honestly." I told him. "Thank you for everything."

"It's okay. I'll see you at school on Monday."

"Of course." I said and smiled at him.

I earned a smile back and I started climbing the stairs when I remembered what I was wearing. "Hold up." I said and unzipped the sweater, throwing it down to Derek who caught it easily in one hand. "Thanks for that." I said and he nodded.

"Goodnight." He said.

"Night." I quietly opened the door to my room and shut it behind me. Sneaking a quick glance at the clock, I discovered that it was way past ten o'clock.

After digging up an old jumper and pyjama pants, I crawled into bed and thought about the day's events. They didn't feel or seem real but they were. I found out that I could speak to the dead, that I could control them. I was a necromancer.

But what I really wanted to know, what was Derek? What made him so secretive about his powers?

I guess I would just have to find out for myself.

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><p><strong>Guys, I'm so sorry that this is so late! In return for your patience, I present you a plate of cookies. Okay, not really.<strong>

**I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out. Let me know what you guys think!**

**Any ways, I'm currently working on a Chlerek-y fluffy-goodness one-shot, but I really don't know if I should upload it. I don't know, it's a work in progress I guess. It'll be up within the next week if you guys are interested (that's if I decide to upload it). **


	9. Hello, John

**This is just a super quick chapter, nothing all that special. **

**I'm not Kelley Armstrong, I own nothing.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>I looked down at my sketchbook and glowered at it. Reaching for my eraser, I furiously rubbed at the grey lines that defined the man until he disappeared completely. Starting over again, I drew a rough line, curving and adding little kinks in it all the way around until it resembled a shirt. His pants came next. From what I could remember, his pants were straight legged black slacks. The bottoms were wet so I added some extra shading at the hems. I moved up to his face, adding the basic facial features and contouring where appropriate. The horrified expression gave me chills up my spine, even though I knew it was just a drawing. The gaping slit I added in his throat completed the main feature. From what I could recall, the image I had scrawled down was pretty spot on. He was bent at the waist with one hand clutching his throat while the other seeked out an uncompleted tree that I had started. I drew the blood gushing out of his throat and staining his shirt, also dripping to the ground as he doubled over. This wasn't just one of my usual dark drawings from my imagination; this one had been inspired by a scene that had happened literally right in front of me, which I couldn't say for most of them, luckily, because they were kind of horrifying to look at. The fact that I watched it happen just made it all the more real to me.<p>

Resenting the picture that sat on my desk, I shot it a dirty look and flipped the page, turning to a fresh sheet of paper.

"You should keep drawing that one." A voice said behind me.

I shot up from my seat. Behind me stood a nicely dressed man, his face vaguely familiar with his slick hair and hollow cheekbones. It eventually clicked that it was the man who I had seen in the woods the night before, the man who I had just been drawing. He stood in front of me at almost six feet tall. Getting a good look at him, he had brown eyes and a clean shaven face. His hair was a natural deep reddish brown that neatly ended at the nape of his neck.

"I-I-I-I…" Stuttering nervously, I couldn't get my words out.

"Don't worry, I'm dead." He told me. "I can't hurt you."

"I-I know." I s-saw you die. W-well, kind of."

The man nodded his head. "I'm John. I'd shake your hand, but being dead has rid me of physical contact." He looked sad.

"I-I'm Chloe. D-do you know m-much about th-this whole seeing g-ghost stuff?" I asked, hoping to get some answers.

John shook his head. "Not at all. All I know is that you have a magnificent glow."

"A glow?"

He tapped the air around me as if there were an invisible force-field. "All of you people have one. You know, the people who can see us dead folks. What do they call you people now?"

"Necromancers."

John scrunched his face up in distaste. "In my day, they called you people mediums." He continued to tap at my 'glow'. "Necromancer." He spat. "Such an ugly word for such a pretty little girl like yourself. I had a daughter your age when I died. You remind me a lot of her."

"When _did_ you die?" I asked.

"I was forty two, back in the fifties." He sighed. "Wait… how did you see my death? You couldn't be older than thirteen, surely."

"I'm fifteen." I glowered at him. "It's a necromancer thing. A residual or something. It's pretty much a replay of somebody's death."

"Did you see who killed me?"

I shook my head. All I saw was John, staggering through the woods. There was no sign of anybody else, not that I saw anyway.

John just shrugged at me. "It's been sixty years so it's not like it matters if you saw him or not."

"I'm sorry." I said pathetically, looking down at my feet.

The man let out a snort. "Hey, it's not your fault, kiddo."

It was my turn to shrug.

"Look, I have to get going. I'm going to go and check up on my daughter. Thanks for the chat and everything; I'll probably see you soon." He said.

"Bye." I waved as he disappeared.

You'd think being killed would make a ghost somewhat hostile when you had a family and something to live for, but nope. John was pretty cheerful, especially towards somebody who – technically – witnessed his death but didn't even catch a glimpse of his killer.

I shrugged and sat back down at my desk, flipping the page over to the image of John that I had scrawled down. After a moment's hesitation, I picked my pencil up again and began adding the detail of the forest around the drawn figure. I added an illuminated house in the back, kind of similar to the house I lived in which finished off the picture completely.

Sighing as I took in the whole picture, I thought back to the night before where Derek had found me. I still had so many questions to ask him and Simon, and possibly Tori if she would be willing to speak to me about it. I wasn't sure of whether I should wait or pay them a visit. Of course, being pushy would make me come off as rude so I would just have to wait. Maybe I could ask Derek on Friday when he tutored me, he seemed to know a lot about this supernatural stuff.

Also, deep down, I was dying to know what Derek was. Simon was a sorcerer and Tori was a witch. I didn't know how many different supernatural types were out there, so who knew what Derek was? He had mentioned enhanced senses. Was he a vampire? Did vampires even exist?

My mind suddenly jumped to werewolves. Were _they_ real? If I hadn't already heard about other kinds of super naturals, my answer would have been _no_ but after finding out that I was a necromancer and could speak to the dead, I didn't know what to think. Two days ago, I wouldn't have even believed that somebody could speak to the dead, but there I was; sitting there dwelling after my first conversation with a ghost. I wouldn't doubt that vampires and werewolves existed, but it was still something I wanted to ask Derek.

I sighed and again, flipped to a fresh page in my sketchbook. Tapping the tip of my pencil against the clean, white page, I racked my brains for something to draw but my mind kept wandering back to supernatural things like witches, sorcerers, vampires, and werewolves. I couldn't help but think about my own strange ability too. Surely being able to see the dead wasn't normal.

Before I knew it, the lead of my pencil made contact with the paper, making messy lines in all different directions. I drew a pair of eyes and an elongated nose, and then moved on to dog-like ears. Staring back at the page, I found myself looking into the face of a darkly shaded wolf, almost like the painting that was placed above my bed.

Satisfied with how my spontaneous drawing turned out, I closed my book and neatly put my pencils back in their tin.

I couldn't use up so much time just wondering about supernatural stuff. My mind eventually wandered to school and how badly I was behind in maths so I grabbed my textbooks out of my bag and chucked them on my desk, leaving just enough space for me to write on.

Eventually I got lost in my maths homework like a normal teenager would do on a boring Saturday morning, but after finding out what I could do, there was no denying that I wasn't just a normal teenager. I was Chloe Saunders, the girl with the annoying stutter that could see ghosts.

Did life really have to be so complicated?

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><p><strong>I know, it's awfully short but the next chapter will definitely be longer, don't worry.<strong>

**Thanks for reading and for all your feedback x**


	10. Let's Learn About Supernaturals!

**Because of my awfully, horrible and short last chapter, I'm updating again for the second time this week! Somebody asked for more Chlerek, so here you go, I hope you guys enjoy. **

**Thanks for all the marvellous reviews that you've been sending. It's lovely to read them all! **

**/Gets megaphone. I do not claim ownership of any characters. I'm not Kelley Armstrong.**

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><p>"Good morning, class!" Mr Robbs bellowed as he entered the class room. "Today is the day where I issue out the team assignment. I've assigned you each partners and there will be absolutely no negotiating. If you're unhappy with your partner, then that's just too bad." He sauntered up the isles handing out criteria sheets to each student he passed as he spoke.<p>

"Read over your sheets. With your partner, you'll be doing a creative writing piece. It must be at least five pages long, and for the love of God, please use your spellcheck." He sighed and slumped down in the chair at his desk as if defeated just by giving out the papers.

The class fell silent for the five minutes it took to read the criteria. It seemed easy enough to do with a partner, I was looking forward to it as long as I wasn't partnered with Mila.

"I should assume that you've all read the sheet. Now, onto partners…" He went down the list, calling out one student, and then another to be their partner. He passed Mila, who was partnered with one of the shy boys that sat at the back. She visibly sneered at Mr Robb's choice but didn't argue it.

"Chloe, you'll be working with Derek." He called out, followed by some laughter and giggling. I actually breathed a sigh of relief and looked over at Derek, who already had his gaze fixed on me. I gave him a smile and turned back to the front of the class and waited for Mr Robbs to finish going through the list of students. When he had called the last of the students, he ordered us to go and find our partner to discuss the assignment.

Half the class stood from their seats in order to go and find their partners. I went over to Derek's table to find him with his nose buried in a book.

"Hey, partner." I said.

Derek grunted a 'hello' and set the book down on the desk.

"You know, you're going to get tired of me soon. You've got me as a neighbour, you tutor me and now you have to do this assignment with me as well."

Derek snorted a laugh. "I don't mind." He rumbled.

I shot him another smile, bigger than the last. "So, how are we going to do this?" I asked him.

We got stuck into the assignment but only got as far as debating what genre of writing we liked. Derek and I both liked horror and action, so we were stuck between the two. _'Absolutely no romance,'_ Derek had demanded.

"How about we just do an action-horror?" I asked. "Or maybe we could do a supernatural kind of theme."

Derek gave me a strange look. "Supernatural-action-horror?" He asked me and I nodded. "Sounds good." He said and leaned back in his chair as if the whole thing had already been taken care of.

"Don't lean back too soon; we have the whole assignment to do." I told him. He rolled his eyes at me and leaned forward, wrote down the genre and leaned back again.

"Oh come on!" I began and he laughed at me. All I could do was scowl at him but even then, it didn't work.

After ten minutes of coaxing, I eventually got Derek into the assignment. By the time the hour was up, we had the main characters down and a pretty decent plotline that just had to be fixed up a bit. Overall, it was a solid effort – mostly on my behalf. Derek kept stressing to me that we had four weeks to complete the assignment the whole time.

I shot him a small smile and stood up as the siren blared, signalling next class. "I'll see you later."

The day flew by quick until it came to last period – Legal studies. Mrs Brown drowned on, and on, and on about everything that didn't actually concern law. Out the corner of my eye, I saw Tori shoot me glances every now and then, obviously displeased with me. It had been happening ever since she found out that I knew of super naturals, thanks to Derek and Simon. Every time I turned my head to meet her gaze, hers would snap to the front of the room.

The bell rang, but the class wasn't dismissed. Oh no, Mrs Brown wasn't finished telling us about the kangaroos she had seen in Australia. She then went on to talk about her favourite music from the 70's. By the time she had finished, I was late for my tutoring with Derek.

I rushed down the main hall to get to my locker, frantically searching through it I pulled out my books, dropping most of them onto the floor in the process. Letting out a frustrated groan, I shoved the ones I didn't need back messily into my locker and ignored the hateful notes that Mila's followers had slipped in there.

I practically flew down the hallways until I reached the door that Derek would be behind. Pushing it open, I found Derek sitting towards the back, doing absolutely nothing.

"You're late." He said.

"I know that, Mr Time Keeper." I scowled and closed the door behind me, making my way to the desk Derek sat at for the second time that day.

"Well somebody has an attitude." He mumbled under his breath, probably not meaning for me to hear him.

Deciding to ignore him, I placed my books down on the table and sat across from him.

"My maths teacher gave me this for homework." I said and pulled out a booklet from the back of my folder.

"Well I guess we better get started on that." Derek said. "Do you understand what to do?" He asked.

"If I did, do you think I would be here?" I asked. Derek raised his eyebrows at me. "S-s-sorry. L-let's just g-get on with t-the work." I stuttered.

It took Derek fifteen minutes to explain before anything even clicked in my mind, and even then I could barely focus on what I was doing. Multiple times, I forgot to carry numbers or divide by 3.14, which made my answers seem way off.

"You can't focus, can you?" He asked me after what seemed like hours.

"Not at all." I sighed and let my face rest in my hands. "Can we talk about the whole supernatural stuff? It's been occupying my thoughts more than I want it to."

"Are you sure you want me explaining it to you and not Simon?" He asked.

"You can explain it."

Derek visibly hesitated. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything, but I guess specifics would help you out more, huh?" I stole a glance at him and he nodded at me to continue. "How many kinds of super naturals are there?"

"We call them races. There are half-demons, necromancers, witches, sorcerers and shamans. They're just the main ones though, most common."

"So there aren't such things as vampires and werewolves?" I asked him, jokingly.

Derek stiffened at my question. "Vampires… no. Werewolves, yes."

I nodded my head. "So, how come there are werewolves, but not vampires?"

"Well, the guy who 'created' us super naturals wanted to mix in both vampires _and_ werewolves, but the people he worked with outvoted him on that point. He got his way with werewolves though, but they're much rarer than necromancers and sorcerers."

"Do werewolves change on a full moon?" I asked.

Derek sputtered a laugh. "You watch way too many movies, Chloe." I looked down at my hands and blushed. "No, they don't change on a full moon. Did you want to know anything else?" He finished, still chuckling.

"Who created the races? I-I mean, who started the experiment with us."

Derek chewed his bottom lip in thought. "We're part of the Genesis II project, there are other projects as well but they are completely irrelevant to us. The guy who started the project himself is long dead. Crazy man, he was. Us though, well you could say that we're the creations of the Edison Group. Test subjects, if you will. It sounds inhumane to call ourselves that, but that's exactly what we are – a test subject that is. But we're just the second generation, an improvement of the first."

"How do you know all this?" I asked him.

He ran a hand through his hair. "My dad used to work for them.

"My brothers and I… we used to live there, in the lab. But they were terminated after attacking one of the nurses. After that incident, dad left the building for good and took me with him."

"T-t-terminated as i-in..." I started.

"Killed, yeah." Derek cut me off and shrugged. "Anything else?"

"What are you?"

He rolled his eyes at me. "Any questions not involving what I am?"

"What do the other races do? Obviously necromancers see the dead and werewolves kind of speak for themselves, but what about the other ones?"

"Witches and sorcerers are pretty much alike; it's just that sorcerers are generally more powerful. But that's not the case with Simon and Tori; I'll get to that in a minute. Witches and sorcerers are just spell casters. You remember seeing Tori put Simon in that binding spell?"

"When Simon froze in mid-walk?"

"Yeah, that's just the beginning of what she can do. There are things like knockback spells where she can send people flying about ten feet in the air. It feels like a whole shock has been sent through your body. She practiced one on me once and it definitely wasn't pleasant."

"What about Simon?" I asked.

"He's not as powerful as Tori. He tried a knockback spell on me once as well and it didn't send me very far. I'm like their lab-rat, even when I don't give them consent to send me flying through the air."

I giggled at the thought. "You mentioned half demons and salmons… shawmans…"

"Shamans? They're like miracle healers. They can astral project too, which is where they kind of leave their body and walk around as a spirit. I don't think necromancers can see them when they do that though.

"Half demons are where it gets more complicated. There are tonnes of those."

"Is that what you are?" I asked, probably annoying him a bit.

"You won't let up will you?"

"Not at all."

"You'll find out eventually." He said. "But no, I'm not a half demon."

"What do half demons do then?" I asked.

"It depends on what type of half-demon you get. There are telekinetic, they can move things with their mind, there are fire-half-demons, depending on what kind they are they can incinerate objects and sometimes people. Let's see… there are demons that can control weather conditions, some can teleport. With each type, there are even more types.

"Say you have a telekinetic half demon, depending on how strong their abilities are, they can be either a Migro, Agito or Volo. Volos are the most powerful, whereas a Migro's powers aren't as strong. It's like that with fire half demons except with Igneus, Aduro and Exustio. Exustio being the most powerful. It's all quite complicated." He said.

I just nodded my head and tried to take in everything he was saying.

"Do you know anything about a necromancer's glow?" I asked him after thinking back just under a week ago.

"Where did you hear about a glow?" He asked.

"That… residual… I saw in the woods, the man appeared in my room. His name was John and he told me that I had a magnificent glow."

Derek tensed. "And that was the first time you actually communicated with a ghost?"

"Yeah, why?"

"How did you handle that?"

"I-I don't know. I guess at first I was a little shocked b-but he was pretty friendly. It wasn't as if he could hurt me or anything so I kind of took confidence in that."

Derek nodded his head. "Good job. Most necromancers freak the first time they see one."

"I think you're forgetting last Friday where I almost broke your nose." I gave him a pointed look.

"You didn't even know that you were seeing a residual. It's a completely different thing. Any ways, a glow is a sign of a necromancer's power. It can only be seen by ghosts, of course. The stronger the glow, the stronger the necromancer."

"So… you could say I'm powerful? I mean, because John said I had a 'magnificent glow' and whatnot."

"I guess. But of course, who knows how many necromancers he's come across? Statistically speaking, you're more likely to come across and albino."

"You have a point." I shrugged. "But I still have an awesome glow." I smirked and Derek gave a small chuckle.

"Are you ready to go home?" He asked.

"Sure." I said and gathered my books.

Derek and I walked out of the school and into the freezing wind. The clouds were grey and it was already starting to rain lightly. "Looks like there's going to be a storm." I said and he nodded. "So I guess I'll see you Monday-"

"Where are you going?" He cut me off.

"Home?"

"Surely you're not walking again." He said and I shrugged. "Oh come on, it's fifteen degrees. I'll drive you home."

"You don't ha-"

"Get in the car, Chloe." He said sternly.

I didn't protest, I just followed him to his car and got into the passenger seat.

"I'm going to have to start driving you home every day." He sighed.

"You don't have to. I could've walked."

"In this weather? No way."

Why did Derek even care? I wasn't his responsibility but of course, I would never turn down an offer to get out of the freezing cold. "God, you're like my mother." I cringed at my own stupid wording but I didn't go further into it and neither did he.

It was insanely and awkwardly quiet on the drive home, but warm nonetheless. Wanting to break the silence, I racked my brain for things to say.

I eventually came out with, "So what else can Simon and Tori do with their powers?"

"Simon and Tori are both very different. Tori can cast spells without any incantations, all she has to do is witness it or know that it's possible for her to do it. It's kind of freaky living in the same house as her, especially when she's mad. Once when she was younger she had a huge fit because dad wouldn't let her have ice cream before dinner so she put him in a binding spell and ate the ice cream in front of him anyway. That instance isn't as scary as the other times, but funny nonetheless. But from a young age dad knew that she was really powerful. Not too long ago she actually sent a ball of energy through a dresser. The aftermath was quite a sight; the dresser was completely intact except for the burning hole through the centre of it. Dad wasn't happy.

"Simon, on the other hand, he needs incantations to cast. He's still learning obviously and he's getting really good at them. He can make stuff hover and can cast a fog spell. It's pretty cool but he still has a long way to go. He's a quick learner and he… well, I guess you could say he 'trains' with dad."

"Is your dad a sorcerer too?" I asked.

"Yep. Simon's mum isn't a supernatural, so it's probably why his powers are weaker than Tori's."

"Tori's mum is a spell caster as well?"

Derek nodded. "I'm pretty sure Tori gets her attitude from her mum too." He pursed his lips, obviously hiding laughter.

"So what can you do?"

"If this is your way of getting me to tell you…" He began.

"No, no, no! I'm just asking what stuff you can do."

"Well you know about my… senses. That's all I'm saying without giving too much more away."

"You mean you've already given something away?" I exclaimed, feeling stupid for missing it.

"I think I've said enough. Probably enough for you to figure out what I am any way."

"Why won't you just tell me? Simon and Tori are pretty open about what they are."

"I'm a bit… well a lot different to Simon and Tori." He shrugged as he made a right turn onto the quiet road where our houses were situated. "You'll figure it out."

I frowned. "Fine. I might just have to ask Simon."

He snorted a laugh. "You have more than enough information. I know you're not dumb, Chloe. Here's your stop." He said.

I turned my attention to what was in front of us and sure enough, he had stopped right in front of my house.

"Oh… well thanks Derek. For everything, that is." I turned to him and smiled before getting out of the car and taking my bag with me.

He stayed there in the car until I was safely in the house before going back down the drive way.

I climbed the stairs lazily and dumped my bag in the corner of my room before flopping down onto the bed.

'_You have more than enough information' my ass, _I thought as a loud clap of thunder rattled the windows. Still feeling cold, I climbed into bed and sunk into the mattress. Sleep wasn't possible, of course.

My thoughts weren't interrupted until a vaguely familiar voice told me to, and I repeat, "Get my lazy behind out of bed."

I shot up to see the tall, nicely dressed man with the slick hair standing at the end of my bed.

"Hey, John." I greeted him.

Great, just what I needed.

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><p><strong>I'm going to leave it there, because the next chapter starts with Chloe and John having a little chat, just to help chapter 11 start off.<strong>

**Thank you guys so much for reading!**


	11. He's Still Derek

**I do not own any of the characters. I'm not Kelley Armstrong.**

**Enjoy.**

Derek stopped outside the living room window which was cracked open just slightly. He heard the hushed voices of his brother and Chloe.

"So I hear Derek's been coaching you on super naturals." Simon pointed out.

"Yeah." Chloe replied quietly, taking a pause. "So why won't Derek tell me what he is?" She asked. "I-I mean, I think I know what he is anyway, but why can't he just tell me?"

"What do _you_ think he is?" Simon asked her.

"A werewolf." Came the girl's voice, sounding more confident.

Derek stiffened at her accusation. Yes, he was a werewolf and technically he pretty much gave it away with his hints, but Chloe had taken a while to work it out. Now that she had, he felt his stomach drop. What was she going to think? The only girl who didn't treat him like the plague knew what he was and there was no going back. He couldn't erase her memory or just say it was all a joke. Of course he wanted her to know, but now that she did he wasn't so sure.

Cue the running and screaming… or not.

'_He's a monster!'_ He expected her to say, but it never sounded from her. "I just want to know why he won't tell me himself." She said, defying Derek's expectations.

An exhale – probably from Simon. "He's worried about what you'll think of him. You're the only person that's actually ever treated him like a person, other than his family. He doesn't want you to see him differently."

Derek mentally cursed Simon for practically admitting it, but his mind soon changed.

"But I don't see him differently. He's still Derek." She told him softly. Derek could just imagine her fiddling with her hair and looking down at her shoes as she spoke. The boy let a huge grin creep across his face at her answer.

Didn't think of him differently? He had no problem with that. Maybe he actually had a chance with the blonde girl that occupied his thoughts more than he was used to.

"Wait," It was Tori's voice that cut in. "You really don't think of my big bro differently, even when you know that at one point in his life, he's going to transform into a wolf?" Doubt seeping in her voice.

"A-as I said, he's still Derek."

_Still Derek. _Her voice echoed through his head. How could she think that? That he was still Derek? He was, of course, but he half expected her to turn and run for the hills. How was it that Chloe could see him for who he really was, even when she knew that he was a werewolf when people who didn't know avoided him like the plague?

He decided to listen in on the rest of the conversation and wait a few minutes before entering the house and making his presence known.

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><p><em>Chloe's point of view<em>

"Chloe, my favourite necromancer. How are you?" John asked.

"I'm fine thanks John. How's your daughter going?" I answered apathetically as I sat up. I was too tired for chatter, all I wanted was sleep.

"Quite well. I overheard her talking about going on a trip to Thailand yesterday. She's going there next year with her husband." He said excitedly. "And how are your studies going?" He asked excitedly. John was like a second… third father. Always wanting to know how my studies were going and what grades I was getting. He would shake his head every time I told him that I hated maths and that I wasn't doing too well.

I shrugged. "Good, I guess." I paused. "Could you tell me about my glow?"

"Well what would you like to know, child?"

"Is it very… bright?"

"Oh yes, my dear! One of the brightest glows I've ever seen." He then proceeded to tap the air around me like he always did when he commented on it. "None of the other necromancers I have come across had a glow quite like yours."

"And how many necromancers have you actually met?" I asked, thinking back to Derek's doubts. He had said to me that necromancers were rare.

"Oh I'd say around five or six. They're difficult to come across. Now why do you ask, my child?"

"My friend was telling me about a necromancer's glow, about how it resembles how powerful we are."

"Is your friend a necromancer too?" He asked.

I shook my head. "No, he's another kind of supernatural but he knows a lot about necromancers."

"Good golly!" He exclaimed. "There are other kinds? What is he?"

"I don't know. He won't tell me but I think I know what he is any way." Just before when I was lying in bed, I thought back to the conversations Derek and I had concerning super naturals. On the night he told me what I was, he also told me about his 'enhanced senses'. That should have been enough of a clue.

_He looked up at me and chewed his bottom lip. "I can hear really well. My sight is well above average and I have pretty good night vision. Smell is a big one too."_

_"Ah, so you're like a tracking dog."_

_Derek laughed at my joke and bought his gaze up to meet mine. "I guess you could say that." He said._

Stupid Chloe!

I didn't actually know why it took me so long for it to click. It was only today that I found out that there were such things as werewolves, so why had I completely overlooked that possibility?

"And what do you think he is?" John asked.

I shrugged. "I might just tell you when I get a definite answer." I answered, not wanting to jump to conclusions even though I knew I somehow wasn't.

"Well, Chloe, some day you must tell me all about this supernatural stuff. I'd love to hear about what you people can do." He smiled.

"I have time now…" I began.

John held his hand up, "No, I believe you have visitors."

I strained my ears and sure enough, I heard laughter and chatter coming from the first floor. John waved his hands in a shooing motion towards the door, encouraging me to go and greet whoever was down there. "I'll talk to you soon, child." He said and then disappeared, leaving me by myself.

I sighed and blindly smoothed my hair as I hurried out my bedroom door. Rushing down the stairs, I almost tripped as I came to the last one but caught myself on the staircase railing. I looked up to see a familiar man shoot me a small smile.

"Hi, Kit." I said. We exchanged greetings. I acknowledged Simon and Tori but… "No Derek?" I asked.

"He'll be here soon." Simon responded and I nodded.

Andrew finally emerged from the kitchen. "Kit's power has gone out because of the storm." He told me.

"Okay, well-" I was cut off by a flickering of the lights. The flickering went on for a minute before we were sent into complete darkness.

A sigh. "Gwen," Andrew called. "Darling, could you light the candles?" He called. His request was answered by sounds of clattering and mumbled curses coming from Gwen when finally a single flame of light appeared in the kitchen.

"Found them!" Gwen exclaimed.

The adults piled into the kitchen and Gwen left me with an armful of candles to light in the living room. I pocketed the matchbook on the counter and lead the others into the sitting room, leaving the adults behind. Simon and Tori followed me trail. I set the candles down and pulled out a match, striking it against the side of the book and holding the flame to the candle. It took a while to catch and I burnt my fingers in the process. Shaking the match furiously in my hands, I mumbled some bad words, cursing out the little wooden stick.

"You all right, Saunders?" Simon asked.

"Yes." I mumbled and finished lighting the rest of the candles.

When I had finished, Simon piped up. "How about a game of scrabble?" He suggested.

"I don't even know if we have scrabble, Simon." I told him.

"You do." He told me pointedly.

Of course, I checked the cupboard and the first thing to fall on my head happened to be a box with the word 'Scrabble' written on it in big letters.

"You do." Simon repeated.

I shot him a glare and bought the box over to the table. "So where's Derek at tonight?" I asked casually.

Simon raised an eyebrow. "Why so interested?" He asked.

"I'm just wondering." I said as I handed out tiles for the game.

"He's on a date," He started.

I felt a pang of envy. Why did I feel that way? I didn't even know myself.

"With his homework." Simon finished.

"It's a Friday though?" I questioned.

"Typical Friday night for Derek." He shrugged. "Any ways, let's play."

Simon, Tori and I played Scrabble, Simon winning two rounds and Tori winning one. Needless to say, I didn't win any. My vocabulary was pretty minimal still so I didn't know as many words as Tori and Simon.

"So I hear Derek's been coaching you on super naturals." He said.

"Yeah." I said pathetically as I set up the board for another round. "So why won't Derek tell me what he is?" I asked. "I-I mean, I think I know what he is anyway, but why can't he just tell me?"

"What do _you_ think he is?" Simon asked.

"A werewolf." I said simply. "I just want to know why he won't tell me himself."

Simon exhaled a breath. "He's worried about what you'll think of him. You're the only person that's actually ever treated him like a person, other than his family." He shrugged. "He doesn't want you to see him differently."

I nodded. "But I don't see him differently. He's still Derek." I said as I fiddled with my hair.

"Wait," Tori cut in. "You really don't think of my big bro differently, even when you know that at one point he's going to turn into a wolf?" She glared at me.

I nodded my head. "A-as I said, he's still Derek." Stuttering under intense gaze.

Tori bowed her head and leaned back, looking more relaxed.

"You should confront him. He'd want to know how you think." Simon said.

"I will." I told him. "Another round?" I suggested, changing the subject and gesturing to the board.

"How about Monopoly?" Tori asked.

"Good idea." I tucked the Scrabble box safely in the cupboard and removed the brightly coloured Monopoly box. Turning around, a tall dark figure stood at the door way, almost startling me but I caught myself before I could let out a yelp. "You're just in time, we're about to play monopoly." I said and raised the box, rattling it and then set it down on the table.

Derek grunted and sat in the seat beside me. Tori dished out the appropriate amounts of money, Simon separated the 'chance' and 'community chest' cards and I shuffled through the rest of the box, trying to find the dice.

We started playing Monopoly only to stop after three or four laps of the board. For the second time that night, we were interrupted by a flickering of lights and soon were flooded by light throughout the room.

Simon and Tori cheered. "Finally!" They exclaimed. Tori announced that she was going to ask dad to take them home and Simon followed close behind.

"So…" I began. I picked up all the houses and cards on the game board and neatly tucked them away. Derek gathered all of the money left over and put it in neat piles. "Can we talk? Like about the whole-"

"Derek, we're leaving. Let's go." Simon called from the kitchen.

"Supernatural thing?" Derek finished for me and I nodded. He ran a hand through his hair and glanced at the kitchen door before turning back to me. "I don't think we'll have time now."

"I guess not." I sighed as I put the lid on the Monopoly box. "Maybe next week."

He shrugged. "I could meet you outside later if you'd like. It'll save you waiting another week for answers."

"You're asking me to sneak out?" I whisper-asked disbelievingly. Of course, I had always been the good girl. In the orphanage they disciplined us harshly so I taught myself to behave and never attempt to deceive anybody. The thought of sneaking out... no, no way.

"Oh, will I get you in trouble?" He smirked playfully.

So, he wanted to play like that did he? I rolled my eyes. "Where do you suppose I meet you then?" Challenge accepted.

"I'll meet you at the bottom of your staircase outside. Eleven o'clock, shall we say?" He rumbled.

"Whatever." I shrugged, trying to hide the nervousness in my voice.

Derek stood up from his seat and stretched. I heard the cracking of his bones as he did so and winced. He noticed my reaction and smirked. "So I guess I'll see you later." He held out a hand and I took it. He hauled me out of my chair and too my feet.

"Yeah, see you then." I said and walked him to the front door where we met Kit, Simon and Tori. We all exchanged goodbyes and they left. Derek gave me one last glance and a nod before walking out the door.

By the time they left it was half past nine and Andrew and Gwen decided to retreat to bed. "Don't stay up too late." They told me. I would've obeyed but I had to meet Derek.

_Maybe just a quick nap_, I thought to myself. Derek said to meet him at eleven o'clock so I had plenty of time to nap.

I hauled myself up the stairs and into my bedroom. Collapsing on my bead, I buried my head into the pillow and pulled the covers around me to keep me warm.

"In my day, if you snuck out you'd get the cane." A voice said. "But my parents were both very harsh with punishment."

I jumped up from my comfortable position to see John. "You've been spying? How did I not see you?" I asked.

"People of your kind can't always see us. We can see you though, always." He told me. "So tell me, why are you sneaking out? Why are you letting this boy influence you so easily?"

"I want to talk to Derek." I said, plain and simple as I yawned. "John, this really isn't a good time. I need to take a nap before I have to go."

"Okay, child. I'll leave the lecture for later, shall I?" He suggested.

"That would be great." I told him, stifling another yawn. He said a quick goodbye and disappeared after telling me to 'be safe' and adding something about pepper spray. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at his concern.

I set my alarm to wake me up five minutes before eleven o'clock and curled back into bed, finally getting some much needed sleep.

Unfortunately, it didn't last as long as I wanted it to.

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><p><strong>It's safe to say that I suck at ending chapters. <strong>

**Hopefully this wasn't too bad. Reviews are much appreciated.**


	12. Who's the Monster?

**I'm not Kelley Armstrong. **

**It feels like it's been forever since I updated this story! It really hasn't been that long though.**

**I'd like to thank everybody who's been reviewing :) I appreciate all of you.**

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><p>I woke up to my alarm sounding next to my bed, and an even louder knocking at my window. My alarm had successfully gone off, but I didn't even wake. Glancing at the neon green numbers, they revealed to me that it was eight minutes past eleven.<p>

'_How the hell did I sleep straight through that?'_ I thought to myself.

Looking at the window, there was a very displeased looking Derek staring at me with impatient, piercing green eyes. I swore to myself and tried to jump out of bed, only to tumble down to the floor when I got my leg tangled in the sheets. Again I looked up, this time to be met with green eyes that danced with amusement. He mouthed a '_you okay?'_ to me and I nodded. Feeling stupid, I pulled myself off the floor, averted my gaze to my feet and pulled on a pair of white sneakers, then bounced to the door to meet Derek.

I had opened it just a crack when Derek said, "Get a jacket. It's cold." So I was forced back into my room to search for something warm to wear. I eventually emerged with a dark green zip up sweater with a hood.

"Better?" I asked, seeking Derek's approval sarcastically. Despite my obvious sarcasm he nodded and began to make his way down the balcony stairs. I slowly closed the door so it wouldn't creak and followed him.

"Where are we going?" I whispered, knowing he could hear me with his super wolfie hearing. No response, just a grunt and from what I could see, he jerked his thumb towards the forest. "I don't know if you remember but the last time we were out here at night I almost broke your nose. Maybe this isn't a good idea." I pointed out. By then, we had reached the edge of the forest and were in the shadows.

He suddenly spun to face me, green eyes glowing vividly in the dark. "You'll be fine." And with that, he turned back to the trees and motioned me to follow him. With the first step I took after him my feet tangled on a tree root and the ground came rushing up to meet me. I squeezed my eyes shut and held my arms out to soften the impact but it never came. Hands clamped down on my shoulders with a grip firm enough to keep me upright. I winced at the vice grip he had on my arm. Lifting my free hand, I began to pry his fingers from my right shoulder, but he got the hint and drew back his hand as if my skin was red-hot through my sweater. I mumbled a thank you to Derek and composed myself before setting out again, the next time Derek kept a hand on my arm to keep me from falling over. His touch was feather light unlike the hold he had on my shoulders. It was probably going to bruise, but I knew Derek's intentions were good.

He led me to the set-up near the stream, keeping that gentle grip on my arm that I liked and steadied me every time my feet would tangle on something. His hand was unusually warm; I could feel the heat through my jacket.

"You're really hot." I told him.

"Well thanks…" He said.

"N-no! I-I mean y-you must have a fever! Y-your hand is warm. That's all." I rambled on, looking at my shoes. _Why_ did I have to be so awkward?

"So you don't think I'm hot?" He asked with a smirk plastered on his face.

_Oh, just a bit. _"I'm not answering that." I told him, defying my thoughts and pushing them to the back of my mind.

"Why not?"

"Because you're getting really off topic." I glared. "Do you have a fever or not?"

"It's no big deal. Fresh air will do me good any way." He sat down on one of the logs that rested against the tree. "Now what did you want to talk about?"

I paused. How exactly was I going to go about confronting him about being a werewolf? It's not exactly every day conversation.

"U-uh, w-well how a-are y-you?" I asked.

Derek folded his arms and scowled at me. "You're bringing me out here to ask me how I am? Come on, Chloe. Now what did you want to talk about?" He asked.

"Hey, it's a conversation starter." I glared, gaining myself more time to work my way around confrontation. "Well, I talked to John earlier today." I said, not knowing what I was going to say after that.

"And?"

I shrugged. "He told me that he'd come across a few necromancers before, and my glow was the brightest that he'd seen."

Derek grunted. "I suppose that your powers would be strong anyway. The people who made us wanted stronger super naturals so they tweaked our genes to be abnormally powerful."

"Why did they do that?"

"They wanted power. They still want it. At first they wanted us super naturals to overpower those who weren't genetically modified to be like us."

"They wanted the world to be full of super naturals?"

"They still do, but they're not going to do anything about it." He shrugged and ran a hand through his hair.

I nodded to show that I understood. "So all of us are genetically modified?"

He shook his head. "No. Tori and Simon are Kit's own flesh and blood, and Tori's mother was a witch so naturally they inherited the genes for spell casters."

"What about you?" I asked.

Derek looked down at his shoes. "I'm not really sure." He said as he kicked a small rock into the stream. "I don't know if my biological father was like me."

Well here goes nothing… "A werewolf." I stated, using the same method I would with a band aid – rip it off, get it over and done with.

Derek's head snapped up and his eyes met mine. "Yeah." He nodded and stared down at his hands that were clasped together. "Monster." He mumbled.

"You're not a monster, Derek." I told him.

He looked up at me again, this time his eyebrows were set in a frown. "At one point in my life, my body is going to rearrange itself so I take the form of a wolf. I'm going to grow fur and a tail. How does that not make me a monster?" His voice cracked towards the end of his sentence.

I put my hand on his arm. "It doesn't change who you are."

A snort. "Who I am? Yeah, it does. Take a look at your arm. I'm sure that wouldn't have happened if I wasn't like this."

"Wh-what?" Confused as to where he was going with the conversation.

"Unzip your jacket." He demanded.

"Excuse me?"

He bought his palm to his forehead. I didn't want to frustrate Derek, plus I trusted him so I did what he said and he helped me shake the jacket off my right arm. He gently pushed up the sleeve on my shirt to reveal a big purple patch of skin that couldn't be mistaken for anything else than a bruise. All I could do was stare at it. I didn't even know if it was possible for a bruise to form that fast.

Derek groaned and placed his head in his hands. "Told you." He said.

"You didn't mean to do it, Derek."

"But it happened anyway. I have no control."

"It's just something you need to practice." I laid my hand on his arm. "I'm not going to hold a grudge against you."

He lifted his head up from his hands and shot his eyes straight to my arm. I went to cover it up before he could beat himself up over it but he stopped my hand. All he could do was look at the purple, finger-shaped bruises. Eventually he tore his eyes away and looked at his hands as if he was amazed that they had the power to leave such a mark.

"I'm sorry." He said. "I just wanted to make sure you didn't fall." His voice wavered.

"Derek, it's fine. Your intentions were good."

"I hurt you."

"You didn't mean to."

No reply. He just sat there, not saying a word, not moving. He looked so vulnerable and defeated because of just one slip up.

"I hurt you." He repeated in a whisper.

"I'm not mad at you." I reassured him.

"You should be. But I guess I'm mad at myself enough for the both of us." He grunted.

"Don't be. It was a mistake."

"One that shouldn't have happened. I should know better." He shook his head violently as he talked.

"Stop moving your head like that. You'll injure your neck." I told him sternly.

He scoffed.

"So… do you have super strength?" I asked, trying to distract him from hating himself.

"Take another look at your arm and tell me what you think." He said bitterly.

"I'm just making conversation." I snapped at him and he dropped his head into his hands. "Sorry. I didn't mean to snap." My voice softened at the sight of Derek looking so guilty. There was no way I could be mad at him. Bruises fade and I wished he wouldn't beat himself up over it so much.

He sighed. "Yeah, I have super strength." He lifted his head out of his hands.

"Have you ever bench pressed a truck?" I asked jokingly, trying to lighten the mood.

"Once or twice." He replied, pulling his lips up in a half smile. I didn't realise at the time that my heart did a flip.

"How do you change into a wolf?" I asked out of curiosity.

He shrugged. "I don't know yet. I guess at one point it will just happen but I don't think it will happen any time soon."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Most werewolves have their first change around twenty years old. Don't ask me why – I don't even know. I guess it was just the way we were designed."

I nodded at him to continue, but he didn't. Instead, he sighed. "Well it's getting late. I should walk you back."

"You mean get rid of me?" I asked playfully.

"I guess you could say that." He said, equally as playful.

I jokingly slapped his arm and smiled. "I don't really want to go back yet. It's nice out here." I scrunched up my nose and squinted into the darkness.

"You're a bad liar. You're probably freezing and you can barely see a thing. If it weren't for the moon you probably wouldn't even know where you are."

I shrugged. He was right, I was freezing my butt off and I could barely see a thing but somehow being in the company of Derek made me feel safe. "Okay, you have a point but it's not like I mind being out here." I leaned back against the tree behind me. We lapsed into silence and I closed my eyes. What felt like seconds turned into minutes and I could feel myself dozing off.

"Chloe, you fell asleep." A deep voice rumbled in my ear.

"Huh, what?" I asked, confused.

"You have to wake up." He told me. "But don't panic." His hand came to rest on my un-bruised shoulder and he shook me slightly.

Panic? Why would I panic? I took his hand in mine and removed it from my shoulder. He squeezed mine before letting it drop but his voice continued in my ear, telling me to get up.

I finally opened my eyes to reveal a small, white rabbit. Did Derek think I was afraid of rabbits or something? I rubbed at my eyes to improve my blurred vision. I bought my hands down from my face and let out a shriek that was cut short by Derek's hand. "I told you not to panic!" He hissed in my ear.

He didn't tell me _why_ I shouldn't panic. What I thought was a cute, fluffy rabbit was still a rabbit, but bits of its fur and flesh were missing. Its bones were visible and one eye had completely rotted away. The left ear looked like it had been gnawed at by rats. All it really looked like was a sack of bones and white fur. I let out a cry as I took in its morbid appearance.

"You need to send it back." He moved right beside me and rubbed his hands up and down my arms.

"S-s-send i-it b-b-back? H-how? What i-is that?" I stammered.

"It's a dead rabbit." He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. I spun to face him with a terrified look on my face. "Sorry." He apologised and ran a hand through his hair. "You raised it. It's trying to come to you."

"H-how d-d-do I u-un-raise it?" I asked. Derek was silent, which wasn't a good sign. "Y-y-you d-don't know w-what I n-need to d-do, do y-y-you?" I cried out as I felt the rabbit at my feet.

"Look, you just need to be calm. Deep breaths. Just remember, you have control over anything you raise."

"S-so I c-can tell i-it to b-back up?" I asked, looking up at Derek and hoping for an answer. He nodded at me so I directed my attention to the half-decomposed rabbit. "S-stop." My stutter was there, but my voice was clear. "Move back." This time my voice was confident. I turned to Derek and whispered, "What now?"

"You send it back." He said as he rubbed my arms with his warm hands. The heat from his hands went straight through the sleeves of my jacket and calmed me. I was about to ask how, but he read my mind. "You have to imagine sending it back into its afterlife. The other side."

I nodded and exhaled loudly. "I can do this." I whispered to myself. Having the rabbit under my control made me feel a bit more at ease and after asking it to move back, I had more control over my emotions. Derek told me to imagine sending it back somewhere, but I didn't know how to. If it was a zombie-rabbit, would that mean that its soul would have been shoved back into its body? Did I have to imagine tugging its soul out of its corpse? There was no harm in trying so that was exactly what I did. I could feel the energy of the rabbit's spirit as I mentally tugged its soul away. I felt as if I was doing it properly so I amped up my power and with one last tug, the energy that I felt dropped.

I didn't dare open my eyes until Derek nudged me. "Chloe? It's done. You can open your eyes." He told me. When I didn't comply he put his hand on mine. "Are you okay?"

"It's gone?" I whispered.

"The body is still there but it's not moving." He reassured me.

I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. "Can you get rid of it?" I asked.

I heard Derek get up from beside me and the rustle of bushes. After a minute I heard him come back. "It's gone." His voice rumbled.

I finally opened my eyes to see him looking down at me, concerned. "Are you okay?" He asked me again.

"All fine and dandy." I said sarcastically. Hot tears welled up in my eyes and my voice cracked. I choked out a sob and Derek moved closer to me. He resumed the position of rubbing my arms with his hands to calm me down. I let the tears fall freely from my eyes.

"I'm sorry. I can't believe I have the power to do that." I said weakly. "I'm a monster."

Derek's hands paused. "You think you're the monster?" He scoffed and pointed to himself. "_This_ is a monster."

"You don't shove spirits back into their rotting corpses." I whimpered.

"You didn't mean to do it, Chloe. You were sleeping. Do you remember what you were dreaming about?" He asked.

I shook my head. "No. I don't even know how I did that." He threw an arm around my shoulder to comfort me but I could tell that he felt awkward. "You don't have to comfort me if you don't want to. I'll be okay." I reassured him.

"What makes you think I don't want to?" He asked.

I scoffed at him. "I can feel the awkwardness radiating off you."

Derek pulled his arm away. "Sorry. I'm just not used to human interaction." He frowned. "Sorry if I made you uncomfortable."

I shook my head. "No, I'm glad you're here. I don't know what I would've done if you weren't." I sighed.

"Are you okay now?"

"I'll be fine." I said and took a deep breath. "As long as I don't partially fall asleep out here again." I let out a shaky laugh but Derek still looked at me with worry in his eyes. When I saw his face, I sighed again. "I guess I'm still a bit shaken up." He nodded when I admitted it.

"It's understandable. You'll get used to your powers with some time and training."

"And who do you suppose I train with? Didn't you tell me that you're more likely to come across an albino than a necromancer?" I partially snapped. Derek's pressed his mouth into a firm line. "I'm sorry." I put my head into my hands. "I didn't mean to snap."

"It's fine." He told me. "I guess I know a bit about necromancy. It won't be the same as training with a real necromancer but I guess I could help. That's if you want me to, of course."

I nodded. "That would be nice." I half smiled at him and he nodded back. Did the boy ever smile?

Derek ended up walking me back to the outside staircase after convincing me to go to sleep. I protested, telling him that I'd probably raise something but he assured me that I'd be fine. Despite that, he gave me his mobile number so that I could call him if anything happened. He told me that he'd be there no matter what and I was thankful for him being just a two minute walk away.

We stopped at the bottom of the staircase and lapsed into silence.

"So…" He started awkwardly. "You don't think of me any differently, do you?" He asked, hopeful.

"Not at all. You're still you." I shook my head and smiled at him.

He sighed at my answer and nodded. "But your arm-"

I cut him off by holding up a hand. "We're not going to talk about that okay? I'm not mad at you. Bruises fade." I told him sternly. "If it makes it fair, I'm pretty sure I hit you in the face last week when we were out here. We're pretty even at this point."

"If you're sure…" He said hesitantly.

"Just stop worrying, Souza. I'll be okay." I sent him a smile.

He closed his eyes and repeated my words. "You'll be okay."

"Good dog." I said and he glared at me. "Too soon?"

"I'll get used to it." He joked.

"Damn right you will." I laughed. "Uh… thank you for helping me before. You know, with the rabbit." I cringed.

"It's okay. You have my number in case it happens again." I nodded and we lapsed into silence again. "You should get inside. You're probably freezing."

I agreed, said goodnight to Derek and turned to head up the stairs into my room. Not being able to sleep was pretty much a guarantee after my encounter with the zombie rabbit, so what else was there to do? I turned to what I always did when I felt stressed out or couldn't sleep. I pulled out my sketchbook and turned to a blank page. After choosing a pencil, I tapped it rhythmically against the paper until an idea popped up in my head. Eventually I got sucked into my own world as I dragged the pencil across the page.

After what seemed like hours, perfecting the details, I found myself looking into the eyes of a dark haired wolf.

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><p><strong>Reviews would be awesome!<strong>


	13. Bad, Bad Day for Chloe Saunders

**Le Disclaimer: I'm not Kelley Armstrong; I do not own the Darkest Powers Series. (Isn't that obvious? ;) )**

**Wow! I feel that this hasn't been updated in ages, and I am so sorry for that, guys! I guess lately I've been under a lot of stress with my health and family life, so I've been really distracted by that. As of lately my life has just been a big ball of mess. Of course, that's no excuse but I feel that I owe you guys an explanation because you've all been fantastic for waiting this long for a chapter. Yes, I did get a few PM's asking me where on Earth an update was and when it would be here, so here it is!**

**Anyways, this is beginning to be a ridiculously long Author's note, but I was curious to know… Are any of you lovely people fond of the TV show Misfits? Because I have an idea brewing for a new story including the Darkest Powers gang and I just kind of want to know how it would go with you guys. I won't be giving much detail about it, but I really think it's something that I'd enjoy writing and hopefully something that you'll enjoy reading equally as much. It won't include the Misfits gang, but I kind of want to incorporate the theme of it and add in the Darkest Powers crew. Please review or PM me and tell me what you think of the idea :)**

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><p>I slung my bag over my shoulder as I hopped out of the car and prepared myself for another day of hell. Most kids would call it school but I wasn't so sure. Lyle High School was like my own personal hell. People would whisper and chatter to each other about me, whether I was in ear shot or not. They would point and laugh when my feet tangled in each other and when I stuttered in the slightest, laughter would erupt from whoever was around to hear it. Had they never had a student with a stutter before?<p>

I pushed the heavy doors open to reveal the halls that were crowded with students. Being five foot nothing was definitely not an advantage in such a crowded school, it seemed that everybody was taller than me and could bowl me over with just the slightest knock of the shoulder.

Pushing my way through the crowd, my shoulder collided with another. Luckily, I managed to stay upright and not tumble to the ground. Not so luckily, I found myself face to face with Mila Andrews. If looks could kill… well you know how the saying goes. It felt like she was trying to incinerate me with her cold, brown eyes and I cringed away from her glare. She flipped her caramel blonde hair out of her face and looked me up and down once before saying, "Watch where you're going, f-f-freak." She walked off with her friends in tow, giggling and high fiving each other. I rolled my eyes at her pettiness and made my way to my locker.

As I was shuffling through the piles of books, a voice sounded from next to me. "Hey there."

I looked to the side to see my neighbour, Derek. "Howdy, partner. How did you go?"

He shrugged. "I got a few pages done." He said as he handed me a clear sheet protector that felt a bit thick for 'a few pages.'

"A few pages? Derek, how many is there in here?" I said as I gawked at what was supposed to be a shared English assignment.

"Around ten. Don't worry, I incorporated your ideas in there and used what you wrote too. It's not just my work."

I raised my eyebrow at him. "You realise that we still have three weeks before we need to submit this, right? You didn't need to rush it."

He shrugged. "There's no harm in getting it done early."

"Three weeks early." I mumbled. "I guess there's always room to alter it."

"Do what you please. I'll leave you in charge as the editor. My grammar is shocking." He said.

"Ah, so you're a genius in everything except for English. I've found your weakness." I teased.

All he did in reply was smirk. "I'll catch you later." He said.

I watched Derek leave before turning back to the story he handed me. He was right, his grammar wasn't a hundred per cent but from what I was reading, it was a great plot line. I smiled at the pages and slipped them back into the protective film, gathered the rest of my books and slammed my locker door shut.

Thankfully I made it to art before the second bell could ring and took my seat between Simon and Liz. Miss Libb sighed as she sat back at her desk, magazine in hand. "Experiment with media today, class. Try something different." She said, apathetically as she scanned the pages.

Liz excitedly rushed over to the paints and Simon went on a hunt for some felt tip pens. I shifted through my bag for my pencils and began sketching a small elephant in the corner of my page.

"Whatcha doin', cutie?" Liam's voice came from right beside me.

I didn't look up from my page as I said, "Drawing."

He let out a chuckle as he picked up one of my pencils. I plucked it out of his hand when I needed it and made it come in contact with the paper.

"How about I give you something to draw, darlin'?" He whispered.

"How about you take your seat back there." I jerked my thumb over my shoulder and indicated to his usual seat.

"Now now, don't be like tha-" his sentence was cut short by a clearing of a voice.

"Do you mind?" Simon asked him. "I'd like to take my seat now."

Liam snarled but left my table.

"You're welcome." Simon said to me with a wink.

I smiled and returned to my art work, praying that the rest of the hour would pass as quickly as I wanted it. Unfortunately it dragged out. The teacher asked the class for complete silence as she had a 'headache' which was code for a hangover. She winced as the siren rang to signal the next class and clutched at her head. Liz stayed behind while I left the art room with Simon and we made our way towards our next classes – mine being English.

I pushed the door open and Mr Robbs greeted me. The class was almost empty with the exception of Derek, Mila and a few others. I took a seat next to Derek so we could go over our work together. After a few minutes, I said, "Wow, you weren't lying when you said your grammar wasn't up to scratch." I joked and he playfully scowled back.

"Neither is your maths." He teased. I launched my foot forward into his shin and he didn't even flinch.

"Stupid wolfie pain tolerance." I mumbled.

A gasp sounded from behind me. "Oh look, they're so great for each other!" Mila squealed. "One anti-social loser and one f-f-freak." She said, addressing Derek and me.

"Derek's not a loser." I pointed out to her.

Derek touched my arm and looked me in the eye. "Don't add fuel to the fire." He warned me. I nodded and ignored the rest of Mila's comments. We spent the rest of the lesson correcting Derek's mistakes that he made. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't entirely awful when it came to spelling and grammar but there was room for improvement.

"Well, you've completely showed me up." He announced and tucked the sheets of paper in a plastic sleeve.

"You're admitting defeat now, are you?" I asked playfully.

"In the English department, yes. But you can never forget that I will always show you up in math."

I frowned. "Just you wait. One of these days I'll catch up to you."

He snorted a laugh as the bell went. "Take these home and finish off correcting." He said as he handed me the sleeve. "I'll see you in gym."

I stuffed the papers in the back of my folder and walked to maths. The most dreaded subject ever made.

"Saunders!" Mr Spader called to me. "Your test results." He passed a piece of paper to me which was my latest test.

I looked at the big, fat D that sat in the top corner of the page and dropped my head. "Your tutoring is obviously working, but you're still not getting it. I'll give you the benefit of re-sitting the test next Monday. I'll let you keep this paper to show where you went wrong."

I nodded. "Thank you, Mr Spader."

"You're absolutely welcome. Be sure that Souza talks you through it. Don't let him leave tutoring until you understand it." He ordered.

I nodded and took my seat next to the window. Simon walked in and gave me a thumbs up. In return I gave him a weak smile. I was _not_ in a good mood. I worked so hard revising for my math test and what did that earn me? A fail, that's what.

For the rest of the lesson, I sulked. For morning tea break, I sulked. For theatre and biology, guess what I did? I sulked.

Sulking was not an option in gym class. "Head in the game!" The coach would scream at us as if we were competing in the Olympics.

"What's wrong with you?" Derek asked.

"I don't know, what is wrong with me?" I snapped.

"You're sulking." He pointed out.

"I don't sulk." I huffed.

"Well what do you call that?"

I sighed. "I failed another math test and I'm starting to question your tutoring."

"_My_ tutoring?" He scowled.

"Just kidding." I smiled weakly. "My teacher is going to let me sit the test again on Monday. We're going to have to go through what I did wrong this Friday so I pass."

He nodded and was about to say something when the coach cut him off.

"Saunders, Souza! Attention up here!"

We were split into teams again to do warm up exercises before our game of indoor cricket. Conveniently I was paired up with Mila and was made to practice our bowls. Her overhand throws felt more forceful than they should have been.

"D-do you t-think you could e-ease up?" I asked.

She answered by throwing the ball harder. Unfortunately my coordination was not up to scratch in the second the ball hit my nose. My head snapped back and I fell on my backside. I clutched at the centre of my face hoping to ease the pain, only to feel a mass of blood.

A fake gasp from Mila. "Oh my gosh, are you like, okay?" Her tone was light and mocking.

I rolled my eyes and stood up with one hand still on my face.

I felt a hand on my back. "Chloe, are you okay?" Derek asked. I nodded. "Tilt your head back; it will help with the bleeding."

Sighing, I did what he said but it didn't stop the blood gushing out. "I think I need to go to the nurse."

"I'll take you." He said as he collected our bags. I slung mine over my shoulder and let him direct me to the nurse's office.

The nurse took one look at me and shook her head. "Gym class? Very dangerous." She stated. "Go and have a seat in the next room and I'll be back with some ice and tissues."

Derek ushered me into the room. "Is it bad?" I asked as I took my hand away from my nose.

He plucked a tissue from the box beside him and handed it to me. "Yeah. Mila really has it in for you, doesn't she?"

I nodded as I bought the tissue up to my nose. "It's beyond me why she hates me so much."

The nurse swung the door open with her arms full of ice and tissues. "Oh, there was already a box there." She nodded towards the box Derek had in his hands, giggled and set down the items in her hands. "So, is this your handiwork?" She asked him in an accusing tone. It was obvious that she was trying to keep it light but she couldn't see past his bulky, mass of intimidation.

"No, it's not Derek's handiwork." I said, probably more harshly than what was appropriate. Sure, he was intimidating but Derek wouldn't hurt a fly.

The nurse didn't say any more after my little outburst. She simply put on some gloves and started to mop up the blood that had dripped down to my chin and neck.

"Alrighty, you're all clean!" She finally said. "The blood has stopped, just try not to do too much running otherwise it will start up again."

Derek and I thanked the nurse and left the room. There was still twenty minutes of lesson time. "Want to ditch?" He asked.

"As in just leave?" I asked in disbelief. First he asked me to sneak out in the middle of the night, and now he was asking me to ditch class.

"Scared you'll get caught, are you?" He smirked.

He was challenging me, and we both knew it. "Where are we going then?" I asked.

"Somewhere quiet. I want to give you some extra tutoring."

I threw my head back groaned. Maths was the last thing on my mind. "Do we really have to?"

"That depends, do you want to pass math?" He saw the scowl that was set on my face. "I know where we can go. Change out of your gym clothes and meet me in the car park."

I did what he said and changed into clean clothes. Blood had soaked into the collar of the shirt I wore in gym and it felt sticky and disgusting against my neck. I pulled the top over my head, being careful not to get blood in my face and hair. Easier said than done, because I ended up smearing it on my cheek. I sighed as I wet a paper towel and wiped it at my face, ridding it of the blood. Balling up the shirt, I stuffed it into an unused pocket of my bag and quickly pulled on my hoodie and jeans.

Derek was already out in the parking lot and he had changed into his normal clothes again.

"You got blood on your face." He said as I approached him.

I bought my hands up to my cheeks and rubbed them to get the blood off. He rolled his eyes and pointed at my forehead. "A little higher up and you've got it."

I felt my forehead and sure enough I felt the blood too. "Thanks." I mumbled. "So where are we going?" I asked as we headed towards his car.

"The café in town. It's usually quiet around this time so we can concentrate on your maths." He said as he opened the passenger door for me. I slipped in and closed it as he walked around to the driver's side.

As promised, we ended up outside a café that was situated in the middle of town. It was small with wooden benches outside and green vines along the walls. Derek went inside and I followed.

It was almost empty, with only six customers scattered through the building, sipping on their coffees and reading the newspaper or typing on their laptops.

Derek led me to a booth with enough space for four other people. He picked up a menu and began to examine it.

"I thought we were here to study for my maths. I'm not exactly passing, you know."

"There's no harm in getting something to eat. What do you want?" He asked.

"I don't have any money." I said as I pulled my maths folder out of my bag. "I'm not hungry anyway."

He scoffed. "Sure you're not. I saw you sulking in the corner during lunch and you didn't even eat anything. You're probably starving by now."

In response my stomach rumbled and I prayed to God that he didn't hear it. "I'll be fine."

He shrugged and went back to the menu while I sorted out what bits of paper I needed in order to study. For a minute, Derek went up to the counter to place his order and then returned.

"Show me your test paper and I'll show you where you went wrong." I handed him the paper and he studied it, all the while shaking his head. "Chloe, you have to remember to carry your numbers. I think that's your main issue here. You have the formula down; it's just your working out that's a little off."

"Well how do you suppose I remember to carry the numbers and add them in?"

"Mark them in red so you don't ignore them I guess." He shrugged. "Whatever works for you." He said as a waiter bought out his food.

My eyes bugged out of my head as I saw the size of his meal, or multiple meals.

"It's a werewolf thing." He mumbled. "We eat a lot."

"That's an understatement." I giggled.

He smirked and pushed a plate of food towards me. "Eat up, I ordered this for you."

I looked down at the plate of chicken and salad. "I told you I wasn't hungry." I pushed the plate back towards him. "Besides, I don't have any money to pay for it."

"Your stomach told me otherwise. I think you're forgetting that I have super hearing, and you can pay me back later. Now eat." He ordered and sent the plate towards me again.

We sat in comfortable silence as we consumed our food – Derek practically inhaling his. I ate as much as I could from my plate as Derek easily finished off his meal of a large pizza, fries and a hamburger. I offered him the rest of my meal and he gladly accepted. How he didn't get fat was beyond me.

Once he was finished eating he told me to practice the test questions when I got home. At the top of the page he had scrawled in red pen, '_CARRY NUMBERS' _large enough so nobody could ignore it.

We left the café and Derek left behind a generous tip. It would take half an hour to get back home and school would have almost been finished by now, so we just went straight back to his car.

He drove me home and dropped me right at the door. "Don't forget to do your homework." He reminded me. I nodded and thanked him, then got out of his car.

I watched him pull away before entering the house.

"Chloe!" Gwen called. "How did you go on your math test?" She asked, sounding excited. "I trust you did well now that Derek is tutoring you."

"I failed." I mumbled to her.

Her face visibly fell, her eyes showing her disappointment. "Useless." She mumbled. "Absolutely bloody useless." She swore some profanities under her breath as she walked away, probably to go and tell Andrew.

The relationship between Andrew, Gwen and me had deteriorated in the past couple of months. They would fight, and fight, and fight which seemed to make their moods permanently glum. Every now and then they would take it out on me by mumbling under their breath, just loud enough so I could hear what they were saying. Other times they would be more forward about it.

I carried my things up to my room and threw my bag on my bed. Searching for my math folder, I pulled out the God awful test sheet but decided against it when my name was called from downstairs.

"Chloe, could you wash the dishes please sweetheart?" Andrew yelled up the stairs.

I gladly left my maths homework behind on the desk and walked out of my room without another thought of it. In the kitchen there was quite a large pile of dishes so I set to work on rinsing them and stacking as many as I could in the dishwasher. Once it was full, I had no other option than to hand wash the rest so I filled the sink with water and detergent.

Halfway through a voice startled me from behind, and I dropped one of the almost-clean, white plates onto the tiled floor. It smashed into pieces at my bare feet, luckily not piercing any of the skin with the jagged edges.

"John!" I hissed. He turned around away from me and then turned back, looking panicked. Then right in front of my eyes, he disappeared into thin air.

"What the hell was that?" Gwen screeched as the rounded the corner into the kitchen. She saw the shattered plate at my feet, rushed over to where I was. Her shoes crushed the delicate porcelain shards into even smaller pieces with each step she took closer to me. I looked around at what was left of the plate and when I finally looked up, she had her hand drawn back. She quickly bought it down to my cheek in a backhand slap. My head snapped to the side as I bought my hand up to cradle the cheek that had just been struck.

"Clean this shit up." She ordered before she left the room.

For a few minutes, I stood in the middle of the kitchen in shock. My cheek stung and my eyes watered. Andrew and Gwen had never hit me before, let alone backhanded me. That was what they did in the orphanage; it wasn't supposed to happen at home. In the time of standing in the kitchen, I felt like I was back there, where the nurses didn't care if they hurt you or if it was an accident or not.

I shook my head as I dropped to the floor, carefully picking up the largest of the shards and discarding them in the bin. The rest I swept up with the dustpan and dumped them with the larger pieces in the trash.

I quietly finished washing and drying the dishes and left the kitchen.

In the bathroom, I stared at the red hand mark on my cheek. With a sigh, I held a cold wet cloth to it since I didn't know what else to do. Once I was satisfied that the mark didn't look hand-shaped anymore, I grabbed my sketchbook and pencils from my room and ran out into the woods. I just couldn't be in that house.

It was cold and the sun was disappearing over the horizon but there was still enough light so that I'd be able to see where I was going. I found the set up by the river and I wondered if there was a lake to end it. Maybe when it was lighter I would go for a wander, but with the sun dimming the forest so quickly, now wasn't a good time.

Taking a seat on a sturdy log, I opened my sketchbook to a fresh page. Usually this would have been within a minute of me connecting my pencil to the paper, but my mind had wiped itself of any creativity. I felt numb and I couldn't think. All that I could focus on the slight throb of my left cheek from where Gwen had hit me. It seemed petty – it was just a backhanded slap – but that didn't stop it from hurting me, emotionally more so than physically. It probably hurt more than copping a cricket ball to the nose. Maybe it was because it came from somebody who was supposed to love me, or maybe it was because it was from somebody who I had come to trust over such a short period of time. Perhaps because it happened in a place where I was supposed to feel safe. It could have even been because for a while I had gone so long without being physically disciplined after doing something wrong. I had gotten used to the lack of beatings, not to say that what Gwen did was a beating, but I just didn't expect it.

I shook my head angrily at myself for letting it occupy my mind more than it should have. Looking down at the blank sheet of paper, I suddenly had a feeling of dread overcome me. Was my lack of creativity going to become a frequent thing? Because I hoped not.

_When all else fails, look at what's sitting in front of you._

Unfortunately what was sitting in front of me was something that I already had scrawled down in my book of drawings. I flipped back to the page and marvelled at the fact that it was unfinished. Smiling stupidly at having something to do, I set to work on adding some more detail, shading and highlighting, adding more branches to the trees and a few more ripples in the water of the stream.

When I was satisfied with my piece, I went back on my other drawings that had yet to be finished. Looking back, I was shocked at how many things I had started but not yet finished – like my drawing of John. I had a rough outline of everything and had already added some detail, but it was undeniably unfinished. The details added to his clothing didn't match his surroundings. His fancy coat was shaded thickly with dark graded pencil, as were his pants and shoes but everything around him looked sketched and bright. I quickly went to work on fixing it, thankfully getting lost in every stroke of the pencil until a ruckus from the woods snapped me out of my trance.

My head snapped up and I froze, pencil in hand which I was gripping so tight out of fear that I was worried it might snap. It sounded as if somebody was flinging themselves through the mass of bush and forest in a mad panic. Groans of pain could be heard as the sound got closer and closer, and I could easily make out a figure on the other side of the stream.

As stupid as it may sound, I was literally frozen in fear. Whatever this was, it wasn't a ghost. There was too much noise whereas from what little experience I had, ghosts were quiet. Therefore, whatever and whoever was out there, was a living being and dangerous or not, had the potential to hurt me. My mind shut itself down and I broke out of my frozen state. I mindlessly fumbled with my things, making more noise than what was necessary and stood up. Stupidly I gazed to the other side of the stream and made the realization that the figure that was nearing looked somewhat familiar.

"Derek?" I whispered, knowing that if it was really Derek then he would hear me with his super wolfie senses.

"Chloe?" He gasped out. He was hunched over by a tree after getting closer, looking weak and helpless. The boy made an attempt to support himself and stand upright, but his legs failed him and he collapsed to the cold, muddy ground.

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><p><strong>Well, just a bit of a cliff hanger, yeah? ;D<strong>

**I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and your feedback would be much appreciated! I love reading your reactions and comments about this, it really makes my day!**


	14. Derek's change

**Hi guys, thank you all so, so, so, so much for being so patient with me and my unreliable update schedule (admittedly I don't have one haha), and I know I haven't updated this story in ages and this is way overdue, but I hope you guys enjoy it. Don't forget to tell me what you think in the reviews, my lovelies!**

**So in celebration of finishing my year 11 exams, here's another chapter! It's a bit shorter than my other ones, and I'm sorry for that but hopefully with my whole 10 weeks of school holidays I'll update more frequently (in between work and playing so many video games!). **

"No, no, no, no." He whispered to himself. "Too early. Far too early." Derek muttered to himself, shaking his head violently.

I made it over to him just as he pulled himself up onto all fours, like a dog. "What's too early? Derek, are you okay?" As I crouched down beside him he looked away from me. In the small glimpse I got of him though, his skin was shiny with sweat and his hair was plastered to his face. You'd think he had just run a marathon, but somehow 'Far too early' which he kept mumbling didn't quite fit that idea.

With another shake of his head, "Don't." he rasped and then paused, panting. "Leave."

"What's wrong? Did you want me to get Simon?" I began to stand up but his warm hand enclosed my wrist. Well, warm was an understatement. I reached around and put the back of my free hand to his forehead and pulled back instantly. "Jesus, Derek. Your face is on fire!"

"Don't get Simon." He whispered. I heard a snap and my head shot up to look around, thinking it was somebody out there who had stepped on a twig. "We're alone." He rasped. Another snap and he whimpered and then I realised – it was his bones that were making that awful sound.

"Well what can I do?" I asked, panic starting to kick in.

"Don't." He panted. "Don't go." Another whimper sounded from him before he turned his head away again and emptied the contents of his stomach into a nearby bush.

"I'm not going anywhere." I crouched back down beside him and laid my hand on his back, rubbing it. Up until that moment I didn't realise what was happening, but then it hit me. "Your change." I whispered. Derek let out a whimper and nodded his head. Who knew that this young man could be so vulnerable?

I gave a small sympathetic smile that he probably couldn't see. "I'll be here for you." I whispered.

He shook his head. "No. Not safe." He panted. "Could get hurt."

"Well I'm not leaving."

He opened his mouth to speak but his words were interrupted by his stomach emptying itself once again. Another snap of his bones and he let out a whine that sounded very dog-like. It just didn't sound right, I had to do something but I didn't know what. I was already rubbing the spot in between his shoulders but it probably didn't help. His body was basically turning itself inside out and there was nothing that I, nor he, could do about it.

Deciding to let nature take its course – whatever that course was – I gave him space. Stepping back and letting him have some room was one of the hardest things I had to do. Seeing somebody that I so deeply cared about in pain was devastating, but feeling helpless and not knowing what to do made it worse.

"You'll be okay, Derek." I resorted to whispering – probably useless – encouragement, unsure whether or not he could hear me. But did it really matter? In the end, I was there for him despite if he sensed it or not.

I watched as he writhed and contorted and cried out, and it never got any easier. The big tough guy who never cracked and showed emotion turned out to be one of the most vulnerable, but not in the way that everybody saw or knew about.

After what felt like hours, - which was actually just minutes – he collapsed at my feet, rolling over. He was still very human but I couldn't see his face, which he covered with his arm. The boy let out a small, wheezy cough and sighed.

"Derek?" I called his name tentatively. In response he grumbled something that I couldn't hear, so he cleared his throat to try again.

"You're disgusted." He said. His voice sounded raw, like it was painful to talk.

"I'm not disgusted." I scooted closer to him. "I wanted to give you space."

His shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. "I'm not going to blame you if you are." He rasped. Clearing his throat again, "I'm a monster."

"Haven't we been through this?" I snapped, half out of fear, fear for Derek and what he had just gone through, and the other half… I just couldn't explain it. "You're not a monster, Derek!"

He moved his hand away from his face and blinked at me.

"Sorry," I apologised. "I'm just in one of those moods.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Nothing, I'm fine, really." I said, thinking back to when Gwen slapped me. "Nothing I can't handle." When he nodded his head, I took it as a sign that he would let it go. "Are you okay?"

He grunted a 'yes' and pulled himself off the ground. When I rushed to help him he waved me away like a child. "I'm fine." He told me. He wasn't fine; it was obvious that he was in an incredible amount of pain. Despite that, I nodded and stepped back to give him some space. The last thing he needed was for me to stress over him. He propped himself up against a tree and threw his head back, breathing deeply. We sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments before he turned to me, green eyes glowing in the dark.

"Why were you out here?" He asked.

"Just needed to get out for a bit." I half smiled, but it wasn't real. My cheek was still throbbing at Gwen's touch, which happened only an hour ago. I shook off the thought and turned my gaze to Derek.

"It's dark, Chloe. It's dangerous out here."

I shrugged at his concern. It was sweet of him, but I could take care of myself. "As I said, I needed to get out."

His brow furrowed in even more concern. "If you're ever out here by yourself, come and get me. Text me, call me, knock at my window – whatever floats your boat. I've found you out here by yourself too many times and these aren't the safest woods to be in, especially at night." He warned.

I scoffed, about to tell him that I would be fine, that I could look after myself. But the look in his eyes told me that he wasn't going to have any of that. I softened. "Thanks, Derek." I smiled, a real one this time. To know that at least one person out there cared about you was one of the best feelings in the world, even if you haven't known each other for long.

"What are friends for?" He sent me a crooked smile.

We proceeded to chat for the rest of the night. I couldn't tell how long we were outside in the woods for, but it was comfortable. Talking to Derek was easy, despite the fact that he wasn't the most social person.

It was nice to get a break for once since school was never an option for that, with all the bullying going on. Now that home was completely different too, I couldn't be comfortable there. Gwen and Andrew fought much too often, it wasn't a 'home' environment anymore. Especially after Gwen had lashed out at me earlier on.

But it was just a slap, right?

Eventually Derek and I decided that it was time to leave our little spot for the night. He was nice enough to walk me back to the stairs that lead up to my room. '_For precautions sake' _he told me. I grinned at his gesture though, and certainly didn't argue it. It was nice to just have somebody to talk to and walk with.

Admittedly, Derek and I had grown close in the past couple of months. He tutored me in math, we worked together in English and we were neighbours. The whole supernatural thing just bought us closer together and in a way, relate to each other. We all had our different struggles and he helped me out with mine. He lent me books to help me learn more about necromancy and asked for nothing in return. Nothing at all. The boy was completely selfless and that was what made me like him so much.

Not 'like' as in friends, it was something deeper than that. Most teenagers would call it a 'crush' but I felt that was too cheesy. There wasn't any other word for it really, so 'crush' would have to do.

I had never had a crush on a boy before. Most of the people who came and went from the orphanage were boys and I was friends with them, but it didn't extend beyond that, and I doubted that mine and Derek's friendship would go further either. I was content with being just friends and I was pretty sure that he was too, not that we ever talked about it.

We said goodnight at the bottom of the stairs, I was about to turn to leave when he stopped me. "Hey Chloe, uh… I didn't say it before, but thanks." I must have looked confused because he added, "Helping me with my change." He said, looking at the ground.

"Any time." I said, looking back at him with a small smile. "Goodnight, Derek." I said before disappearing up the stairs, being careful to not make too much noise. After I successfully retreated into my room, I poked my head out the door one last time to find Derek still there. Hands in pockets and gaze on the ground. I watched him for a moment until he turned around and wandered back to his own house.

Soon after Derek left I changed into my pyjamas and got ready for bed, trying not to recall the past day's events. It had been stressful and upsetting but all of it didn't seem to matter. After my encounter with Derek, everything seemed okay. I was relaxed and felt that a whole weight had been lifted off my shoulders. In result of that, I drifted into a calm, peaceful sleep.

**Thanks for reading, guys.**

**I'd love to know, what are your favourite video games? Xx **


	15. He Hates me

**Guys, I have some really, really awesome news and I may have just hyperventilated a bit, but no big deal! KELLEY ARMSTRONG IS FOLLOWING ME ON TUMBLR! I FOUND HER OFFICIAL BLOG AND FOLLOWED HER AND SHE FOLLOWED ME BACK AND I MAY JUST FAINT. DEREK, CATCH ME PLEASE!**

**Any who, since my last update, I turned 17! Just one more year away until I'm legal! ;) (in Australia anyway). And of course, we entered 2013. Is anybody else excited? Hopefully for me it means an awesome last year of high school, and a better year for everything. Admittedly, 2012 was awful for me but I'm going to make this year my bitch.**

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><p>I hopped out the car and entered the school to be greeted with big, bright posters advertising the school's grade 11 dance which was tonight. I stopped to admire one on my way to my locker when I was interrupted by a familiar voice.<p>

"Changed your mind yet?" Simon asked.

I turned to scoff at him jokingly. "No way."

My desire to go to the school dance was practically non-existent. Ever since Gwen and Andrew had taken a turn for the worst, I decided that asking for a pretty new dress and shoes wasn't the best idea. It wasn't that I wanted to go, anyway, but it would have been a good chance to be social and talk to people outside of a classroom environment. Admittedly though, getting dressed up and dancing wasn't for me.

"Guess it's not for everybody." Simon shrugged. "See you in art." He said.

I took one last glance before heading to my locker. As usual, I opened the locker door and small bits of paper fluttered out of it. Mila and her friends had not let up on the insults, constantly filling my locker with derogatory words, flinging sports equipment at my face during gym class, and of course mocking my stutter were still parts of their daily routine. I had learnt to ignore it though; they were petty high school girls and nothing more. But of course that didn't mean I would sometimes get fired up, embarrassed and hurt over it. I was human and I had feelings as well, which these girls seemed to disregard. Why they bothered to take time out of their day especially to hurt, abuse and humiliate me was beyond me.

I sighed as I crumpled the little notes and shoved them to the back of my locker, adding to the rest of the pile. Realising that I had only two minutes before I had to be in art, I snatched up my book and pencils and rushed through the corridors.

I took my usual seat next to Simon and Liz. Liz excitedly informed me of the dress she had bought the night before just for the dance.

"It's purple and it has fake rhinestones around the bust, and-" She proceeded to ramble on about her dress, and the shoes, and how she planned to do her make up. Liz also took it upon herself to change my mind about going to the dance. "Come on, Chloe! I basically planned this dance and I _know _it will be good! You'll have so much fun, and maybe I can even set you up with a last minute date!"

"I'll be her date." A southern accent drawled from behind us. "I'm sure she'd look real pretty in a nice dress." Liam – the creep – said.

"I'm not going to the dance, guys."

"Come on, cutie. I could show you a real fun time. Oh we would have so much fun." His voice sent chills up my spine.

"No thank you." I said.

"Oh come on, baby."

"I-I said no!" I told him, a bit more sternly. All he did is chuckle and return to his art work. I turned back to my friends and said, "Thanks for the invite guys, but it's not my thing, and I don't even have a dress for it. I might just do a casual night in."

Liz and Simon nodded their heads sadly, as if my absence would destroy the night, but I was sure that they'd have a blast – with or without me. After a tiny bit of grumbling, they too, returned to their work, leaving me to also finish mine.

The first half of the day went as quickly as it came. The school was buzzing with excitement over the dance and I was really just over it. It was great that everybody was enthusiastic and had something to look forward to, but it was a little over bearing.

"What are you wearing?"

"How are you doing your hair?"

"What colour are your shoes?"

"Apparently she bought the same dress as me!" – This one was usually accompanied by many gasps and a lot of bitchiness.

I couldn't help but feel that it was petty how people relied so heavily on their peers when it came to such trivial events in life, but then again, I still knew nothing about how high school worked so I shrugged it off.

When it came to lunch, I decided that the best idea would be to avoid the cafeteria. The event organisers (including Liz) had set up a makeshift stage to announce last minute details and changes for the dance. It was the last place I wanted to be at that moment.

I approached the library, taking in its matured state. It was the only building in the school that wasn't done up to fit in with the modern design. Funny that, it was the most neglected buildings but held so much potential. It was quite a large building with dozens of rows of wooden shelves stacked with books. There were a few beanbags in various sitting areas and a couple of tables accompanied by chairs, but other than that it was empty with the exception of the service desk.

I plonked down on a blue beanbag with my math textbook in hand, fully intent on studying for my Friday afternoon tutoring with Derek, but the pages were fuzzy and my eyes unfocused. Stifling a yawn I let my head lull back, letting the beanbag cradle me into much needed rest. It was peaceful, comfortable. Exactly what I needed but hadn't been able to get in the past month. The sleep I got at home was plagued with nightmares of me being hit, kicked, punched and rolled into a ditch by the people who I thought cared for me the most.

Those dreams were part of my reality, though. What were once kind, inviting faces turned cold and hard.

I didn't notice that I was drifting off into a light sleep before the beanbag underneath me shook and I flew half a metre into the air. On the way down I felt hands grip at my arms to ease my fall, but I still clashed heads with my 'saviour'.

My eyes connected with green ones as I glared at Derek for waking me from my slumber. While my relationship with Gwen and Andrew had deteriorated, mine and Derek's friendship had grown stronger. In between him tutoring me in math, working on our English project together, and our occasional late night chats in the woods, our bond had grown and we told each other things that we wouldn't dare tell anybody else.

"Studying?" He asked.

"Sleeping." I intensified my glare for a moment before looking away.

"There's no time for that if you're as crazy as everybody else about the dance."

"Well in that case there's plenty of time for sleep."

He fake gasped. "No! You mean you're not going to get dressed up for a stupid dance and act like a fool in the school gym and find a date and drink really bad punch?"

"That's exactly what I mean." I told him. "My plan is to run home from school, away from the craziness, collapse onto my bed and sleep for the whole weekend."

"You're forgetting something." He said.

"What?"

"Tutoring." He grinned. "It's a Friday, remember?"

"Of course. But could we go somewhere else? If we stay here then we'll have the distractions of the dance committee." I pleaded.

"Where ever you wish to extend your mathematical knowledge, fair lady." He complied.

"You're strange." I raised my eyebrow at him.

"You should know by now that we're all a little bit strange." He joked. "Anyways, we can have our own dance in the woods, if that's what you want to call it. I need to talk to you anyway." All traces of jokes aside, he sounded serious and I didn't know what to think.

"What do you mean 'need to talk'?" I asked him wearily. He just grinned at me, a grin that only I ever saw. Derek wasn't a smiley person; it was something that I learned when we first met, but as we grew closer he let loose a little bit and opened up. Of course though, his grin couldn't get him away with anything… well maybe it could, but I was curious. "Derek, what do you mean 'need to talk'?" I repeated.

"You'll find out." He shrugged. "I've got to go and return some books, I'll see you in gym class." He stood up from the bean bag we shared, the weight shifting and me sinking further into it at his absence.

"Sure, see you later."

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><p>The last siren of the day rang, excusing the students from their last class. I breathed a sigh of relief that Mrs Brown didn't make us stay behind an extra ten minutes to talk about her trip to Egypt. She was as eager to rid the class of students as we were to leave.<p>

Derek had told me to meet him in the student cark park. I waited there for five minutes, which turned to ten and I whipped out my phone and shot him a quick text. His silver Honda was still in the car park, so he hadn't left without me.

_Where r u? – C _

I sent the text and shoved my phone in my pocket. A few minutes went by before I saw a tall figure round the corner. My breath hitched, thinking that it was Derek but I was disappointed to see a slightly shorter, lankier figure. From a distance I recognised who it was – Liam. He was making his way to an old, beat up red Toyota which I guessed was his before he stopped in his tracks after seeing me.

"Hey there cutie." He called. "Need a ride?" He stepped around the car so he was in front of me, only 10 metres away.

"No thank you. My ride should be here soon." I replied coldly.

"You gettin' a ride with that Derek fella? Are you guys screwin' 'round or somethin' cutie? Heard you guys chattin' in gym class."

"We're friends."

"Fuck buddies eh?" He smirked and leaned against the dented passenger door of his car.

"_Friends." _Did he not understand the concept of friends?

He raised an eyebrow and took a few steps closer to me. "So you could say you're available?" He licked his lips and raked his eyes over my body. "You and me could be good together y'know? A dainty little thing like yourself. Real pretty. I was kinda' hoping you'd accept my invitation to the dance." A few more steps closer.

Liam's stance was somewhat threatening and made me uncomfortable. Where was Derek? I not-so discreetly half-pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked the time. Three minutes had passed since I texted him but no reply. Usually he replied fairly quickly.

"Lover boy forgot about ya, huh? Maybe we could go for a drive in my car." He proceeded to come closer.

"Can you step away, please?" I asked, but it came out as a whisper.

"What's that cutie? Can't here ya there." He took this as an opportunity to take a few more steps towards me so he had closed most of the gap between us. He only stood 3 feet away now and it made me feel uneasy.

"L-leave me a-alone." I went to side-step him but he followed, blocking my path. With my back up against a wall I was practically helpless against his predatory antics and vibe.

One more step and he was right in front of me. He reached out his hand and touched the ends of my hair that rested just below my collar bone. "Liam, back off." My voice quaked, but thankfully grew louder than a whisper.

"Oh come on, we could-"

"What the fuck are you doing Liam?" Derek's voice boomed from behind him. I breathed a sigh of relief when I caught a glimpse of Derek.

Liam twisted around, dropping the tips of my hair out of his hands. I took the opportunity of him being distracted to dodge around him and rush to Derek, who took me into the protection of his arms.

"You don't talk to Chloe, don't look at her, don't even fucking breathe her name or so help me God I will end you." He growled at Liam. I felt the rumble of Derek's chest against my ear as I tucked my head against him to avoid Liam's stares. I could just imagine the looks that Liam was giving Derek and I didn't want to see them.

A few threatening words were exchanged before Derek turned me towards his car. Silent, he took my bag from me and threw it in the back seat, opened the passenger side door and closed it once I got in. He didn't say a word when he got in the driver's seat, just gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles were white.

I stared straight ahead and with a shaky breath, the first thing that came out of my mouth was, "You're late." I quaked, trying to lighten the situation but failed.

Derek let out a huge breath which I was sure he was holding in for quite a while. He took a minute to breathe and I waited for some form of reply but it never came. Eventually I looked down to my trembling hands that laid in my lap. Derek hadn't even started the car; he just clenched the steering wheel with white knuckles and took deep breaths.

"Derek?" I asked. He stared straight forward and if possible, his knuckles turned even whiter. "Derek?" I repeated.

"Did he touch you?" He asked, barely above a whisper.

"He just-"

"Did he touch you?!" He yelled. I flinched at his abruptness and shrunk back in my seat a little bit and finally allowed myself to look at him. His face was red from what was probably anger, his green eyes were hard and cold and his brow furrowed. He looked genuinely angry, something I hadn't seen in him before.

"Just my hair." I whispered. He nodded his head once and lessened his grip on the steering wheel.

"I'm sorry." He muttered through clenched teeth.

"What are _you _sorry for? You're not the creep who backed me up against a wall!" I snapped, but a hint of stammer was evident in my voice. "Just don't worry about it." I spat angrily.

"Why are you so mad? I got you away from that creep!" He exclaimed.

"I'm mad at myself! I let myself get into that position and I put my safety in danger! I'm an idiot. I should've just walked home when you didn't show up after five minutes." I replied just as loudly. Turning away from him I went to open the door where Derek locked it from his side. I turned around to glare at him to find his hard, green eyes staring back at me. Like before, his brow was furrowed in anger. "Let me out of the car, Derek."

"Well maybe if I wasn't late it wouldn't have happened."

I rolled my eyes at him and went to flick the lock on my door, only to hear it lock back into place thanks to Derek. "I said let me out. I'm walking home."

"No. You still have an hour of tutoring and you're going to damn well do it. You're going to study your butt off and get an A on your next test." He demanded.

I sighed and turned to face straight ahead of me. Buckling in my seatbelt, I mumbled, "You're impossible," and remained unsure if Derek actually heard me or not.

He put the car into gear and drove off, the opposite way to either of our houses. After ten minutes of driving he pulled into a large car park that belonged to the local library. It wasn't as nice as the school's library, but it was still a pleasant place to study.

Derek silently led me over to a table in an area where nobody else was. We got stuck into a work booklet that my teacher had issued out earlier on in the week, but it just wasn't the same. There weren't the little jokes or nudges like usual, it was tense and uncomfortable. Not in the same sense as the Liam situation, it was uncomfortable as in it didn't work properly with us mad at each other. Maybe it was the visible tension in Derek's shoulders or the way he sat back and scowled at me with his arms crossed, but I hated it. Derek and I had never fought before and I didn't know whether or not to consider this a real fight, but it upset me nonetheless. I liked having the comfort of Derek's smile and kind words whenever I did something right.

The hour ended and we quietly gathered our things and made our way back to his car. He dropped me right at my front door as usual except this time without a goodbye. I held back tears. I didn't know what to say. I wanted to apologise but I didn't want to look weak. I felt pathetic.

He didn't wait for me to be safely inside the house, he just drove straight off.

Unlocking the door I was greeted by both Gwen and Andrew sitting in the living room. They both stood up at my arrival.

"You're late." Andrew glared.

"I'm sorry, we got caught up." I replied slackly.

"Not fucking good enough." Andrew spat. He strode up to me and thumped me in the shoulder, followed by a blow between my shoulder blades. I clenched my teeth and he passed me and headed straight for the kitchen.

Gwen followed him but stopped and hit me upside the head. "Look what you've done, you little shit! You've made him angry, just great!" She hissed and then followed Andrew into the kitchen, her tone suddenly changing as she called after him. "Andrew, honey?" She called out sweetly. Their voices faded as they reached the further side of the kitchen and I breathed a sigh.

I dragged myself up the stairs and into my room. Taking my jumper off and my singlet I cringed at the sight of the bruises that scattered my back and my stomach. Bruises from Andrew's hits had already started to form and they throbbed painfully.

I pulled on a long sleeved shirt to cover them and lay down carefully on my bed, being careful to not bump any of the bruises.

It was funny. I didn't give two damns about the newly acquired bruises but Derek and me arguing hurt more than any beating ever could. Maybe it was because I was used to having Gwen and Andrew beat down on me, or maybe it was just because I was too stupid to put my trust into a boy who I thought was my friend – best friend even. I didn't know what we were anymore. Did he want to see me? Should I text him or do I wait for him to text me? Does he hate me? Oh God, if he hates me- I just couldn't.

Confusion overwhelmed me from the possibilities running through my head. All I wanted was Derek; I wanted his comforting words and his smile around. Him being mad at me was something that I didn't know I could handle and for some reason I felt broken.

Feeling exhausted and overwhelmed by feelings, the only thing I could do was something that I hadn't done in a long time. I cried.

* * *

><p><strong>Urrrgh! I hate leaving it at that part but I felt that chapter was getting a bit long! But not to worry, with it being 2013 I have a diary that I'm actually using! I'm going to try and stick to an update schedule and update every Sunday (it might be updated on Saturdays if you're in the US due to time zones), but because I'm so keen to get the next chapter out I might even update before then! I have tomorrow off (Monday) before I go back to school (my last year, yay!) so I'll definitely fit some writing in there!<strong>

**As usual, I hope you guys enjoyed and it would be so very kind of you to review. I read and appreciate every single review you guys give me (sometimes I read them over and over again if I'm having a bad day, it really cheers me up). Hope you're all having a lovely week and I'll be updating soon **


	16. What Have I Done?

**This may or may turn out to be a really long author's note, and I hope you guys read this because I want an opinion. **

**I want to start a new fan fiction, should I wait until I finish this story (there may be a sequel) or should I just start it now? If it helps I'll give you guys a little preview.**

_**I dialled the number listed on the web page and crossed my fingers. The person on the other end picked up on the second ring and greeted me with a gruff **_**'Hello?'**

_**I took a deep breath and forgot every single word that I had previously rehearsed prior to dialling. While I could talk confidently on the phone to my dad, phoning strangers was something that I definitely wasn't a fan of. **_

"_**H-hello, is this Derek?" I asked.**_

_**The person on the other end sighed. "Yes this is Derek."**_

"_**Oh, okay." I paused. "My name is Chloe, I'm just calling about the-"**_

"_**I know what you're calling about." **_

_**I was taken aback by his abruptness. For somebody who was looking for somebody else to try and lessen their financial burden, they were the opposite of welcoming. **_

"_**M-my understanding is that you're still looking for somebody?" I cursed my stutter. **_

"_**How old are you?" He asked.**_

"_**Twenty three." **_

"_**And you stutter?"**_

_**Once again, I was taken aback. Every single bone in my body wanted to tell him to go and fuck himself and hang up, but I was desperate. "I don't see where that comes into play here, Derek." I stated firmly. "This call is about the advertisement that you placed on the website but if you're going to be hostile about it then let me tell you that you'll have a lot of trouble finding somebody who will put up with your crap." I told him and then hung up. **_

_**Letting out a frustrated grunt, I threw my phone on my bed and collapsed beside it. I was so close to giving up, but I couldn't stay where I was for the rest of my life. I needed to pack up my life and move along. **_

_**My phone rang under an unfamiliar number. I reluctantly answered with a 'hello'.**_

_**Instantly the person on the other line spoke. "It's Derek, I got your number off called ID. I'm sorry about that and I know you probably won't want to, but did you want to come and check it out anyway? I didn't mean to offend you." **_

_**I let out a frustrated sigh in hopes that he would hear it and feel bad, but nonetheless I told him yes. After jotting down the address he gave me and setting a day and time, we said goodbye and hung up. **_

_**He didn't seem like the most welcoming person and I would've said no if it weren't for the fact that I was desperate. How bad could it be, anyway? Surely we'd grow on each other, right? **_

**Yeah that's pretty much the preview. If you guys like it just tell me and I'll start it/publish it as soon as I can.**

**Anyways, I hope you're all well and hopefully you enjoy this chapter. **

**Derek's point of view**

I sped away from Chloe's house before she even stepped foot through the door. Usually I would've waited to make sure she got inside safely but I wasn't thinking. Just like I wasn't thinking when I drove straight past my own house without even realising and I sure as hell wasn't thinking straight when I pulled my car off to the side of the road, leapt out and kicked the front wheel out of anger.

Worst of all, I wasn't thinking when I yelled at her. I never meant to make her angry at me but I lost control when I saw that creep Liam hovering over her.

Was she scared of me? Angry? Upset?

I wouldn't blame her if she was all of the above. Scared because I practically threatened to snap Liam's neck. Angry because I was late to meet up with her and put her in a situation that could've turned ugly. Upset because I yelled at her.

What made me so angry was that she didn't understand exactly how dangerous Liam Malloy really was. He was known around campus for one thing only, and that was making the younger girls feel uncomfortable. I didn't want that to happen to Chloe, I wanted her to feel safe and happy. That was the only thing I ever wanted for her.

I sat on the bonnet of my car and put my head in my hands. Before Chloe came along, I never had friends, let alone arguments with people that I stressed and worried over. I didn't want Chloe to hate me but she seemed pissed off all throughout tutoring. Admittedly I didn't help the situation at all by yelling and being rude, it was partially my fault… mostly my fault. If I was five minutes earlier then just maybe…

I flung myself off the bonnet of my car, kicked the front wheel once again and sat back in the driver's seat. It was _my _fault that Liam hovered over her. My fault that he touched her. My fault that she felt uncomfortable. At first I didn't know who to blame but it came crashing down like a ton of bricks. How could I leave her waiting after school? I should've at least texted her to let her know that I'd be late. Why was I blaming Chloe for not knowing how dangerous Liam was? I was an idiot.

Mad at myself, I pulled a U-turn and headed straight for home in the hopes that I could get my mind off things. Knowing that there was a large pile of homework waiting for me on my desk in my room made me sigh in relief.

I was greeted by my family who were sitting at the kitchen table. Dad and Simon had on their usual friendly grins whereas Tori had her usual scowl plastered on her face. She took after her mother in terms of her attitude. Maybe if she took after dad then things would become more bearable around home.

I said 'hello' to dad and Simon and grunted a half-greeting at Tori. We barely acknowledged each other's' existences and I wasn't planning on changing that soon.

After closing the door to my room I wanted nothing more than to collapse on my bed and sleep, but if I wanted to have the rest of the weekend free then I'd have to get the mountain of homework done that was waiting for me on my desk.

Halfway through into my advanced physics homework there were footsteps coming from the hallway leading up to my room – Simon's. He knocked on the door and opened it before I could permit him.

"What's up?" I asked, not looking away from my text book.

"I should be asking what's up with you, man." He replied. "You seemed pretty down in the dumps when you came home."

I shrugged. "Must be feeling off."

Simon sighed and sat on the black bean bag situated beside my bookshelf. "Do I have to cast a truth spell or are you going to be honest? Bro, I can tell when there's something actually wrong. This time it's not just you 'feeling off', I'm not dumb. Tell me."

It wasn't often that I confided in Simon, mostly because a lot of the time he didn't understand how my brain worked. Up until now I didn't need help in social aspects because I had never gained any friends to have problems with. But now that I had Chloe, maybe his help would be of some use.

"Chloe and I had a fight."

"You're going to have to give me more information than that."

"There was an… incident. With Liam Malloy."

Simon shuddered at the name. "He's a creep. But what actually happened?"

"I was late after school to meet with Chloe for tutoring, and by the time I got there he was hovering over her." I told him with my head bowed.

"My guess is that you've blamed yourself for it and Chloe disagrees. Am I right or am I right?" He assumed. When I shrugged, he added "I'm right, I know you too well."

He was about to say something else but was interrupted by my phone ringing. I picked it up and looked at caller ID.

_Chloe._

"It's her, isn't it?" He asked.

For a moment there I froze. Was she calling to chew me out? To tell me that she hated me? I couldn't imagine what she would possibly want from me. Maybe it was just a pocket dial?

Regardless, I hit the 'answer' button. Traditionally people would greet their caller with a 'hello?' but I didn't know what to say to her.

"Come outside?" She whispered into the phone, so quiet that I could barely hear it.

In reply, I grunted. I didn't know how she would take it. Hell, I didn't even know what my answer meant.

When I hung up, Simon sat there, gaping at me.

"What?" I asked.

"She asked you to go outside to meet with her, probably to fix things, and you just grunt at her and hang up? Bro, go and see her." When I shrugged he let out a frustrated sigh. "I can see how much Chloe means to you, and you're seriously just going to let her wait outside in the cold? You're going to let her worry just because you can't make up your damn mind?"

"I don't know, Simon."

"I thought you had more balls than that, man." He told me, obviously disappointed.

I glared at him as he walked out of the room, but he was right. I had no right to leave Chloe out in the cold, waiting for me when I may not even show up.

"Simon," I stopped him. "If dad asks, can you tell him that I've gone to bed early?"

"I knew you'd do the right thing." He grinned. "Really had to push your buttons there. I'll tell him."

"Thanks." With that, he left my room.

I grabbed a jacket and flung my window open. My room was on the second floor but that didn't stop me – I jumped straight down onto the grass below and made my way over to our usual meeting spot.

What Chloe had planned, I had no idea. There were many possibilities running through my head. She could chew me out, tell me that she hated me, or that she never wanted to see me again, punch me in the face for being a jerk, or forgive me. Oh God, I hoped that she would forgive me.

Up until now I had never realised how important she was to me. Of course I appreciated her and everything that she had done for me in the past, but I didn't realise how much I really needed her in my life. Now that there was the possibility that I could lose Chloe, I went into a state of panic. Never before in my life had I relied so heavily on someone other than dad, but Chloe changed it all. I let her in and trusted her and we helped each other, and now there was a possibility that she hated me. I couldn't deal with it and I was eager to make things right between us again.

By the time I had the mindset that I was going to fix things with Chloe, I was pretty close to where I assumed she wanted to meet me – our usual spot.

Picking up her scent was easy. It was unlike anything you'd smell in the woods so she was easy to track down and by the strength of her scent, I could tell that she was either in our usual spot, or was there a just minute ago.

I hoped it was the former, I wanted- no, needed – to talk to her.

By the time I was almost there, I was positive that she had stayed there. I could hear her breathing, the scrape of shoes on bark and a sigh. They all sounded like Chloe.

I smiled to myself through the nervousness of having to face her. Part of me wanted to turn around, run and hide but the other part was desperate to talk to her, to comfort her. To make things right with her.

I took the last few steps before I came across a bunch of branches. Bracing myself, I pushed them back and stepped through, trying not to get whipped by them flinging back.

After I was safely away from them, I looked up to find a mess of strawberry blonde hair – Chloe.

And she was crying.

_Oh God, what have I done?_

**Well, that's another chapter down! Tell me what you think, and I also hope that you read the first author's note, because I'd love to know your thoughts on it. It's an idea that I'm really keen on pitching soon so if you guys like it then that's just extra motivation!**

**Hopefully all of you are well and that 2013 is treating you right. Thanks for reading and reviewing if you choose to **


	17. What does it mean?

**I'm a couple of days late with the update because I had to re-write this entire chapter due to not being happy with how it turned out. I think this one turned out to be a lot better than the original version, so enjoy!**

**Chloe's point of view**

After making several attempts at my math homework, I gave up. In the privacy of my own room I didn't see the point in holding back tears, so I cried for what felt like hours. After checking the clock, I realised that it actually _had _been hours.

"What's happened, child?" A voice said from the other side of my bedroom – John.

"Derek and I had a fight." I huffed.

"You're crying over a boy? Ridiculous girl, you're better than that. Go wash your face off and put a smile on, he's not worth your time."

John didn't understand, he meant well but didn't understand how much I cared for Derek. I didn't want to fight with him. "But he's my best friend." I sighed. "We've never had a fight before."

"Well then talk to him. He's not a mind reader. Whatever it is, if you're close enough and care for each other enough, you will both get through it and come out with a stronger friendship. Communicate, child."

I sighed. "I should probably text him. I'll think about it."

"Better do it sooner rather than later." He said. "Anyhow, I believe I'd better be going. Wipe the tears because your dinner is about to be ready." Before I could even reply and tell him 'thank you', he disappeared into thin air.

Peeling myself off of my bed I went into the bathroom and washed my face of the tear tracks and ran a brush through my hair. Just as John predicted, Gwen's voice echoed through the house, calling me down for dinner.

I shovelled my dinner of roast pork and vegetables down, trying to eat as fast as possible. After excusing myself from the table and washing my plate, I went straight back to my bedroom and collapsed on my bed. Blindly searching for my phone on my bedside table, my fingers brushed the hard surface and I picked it up. I scrolled through my contacts list until I found Derek's name and my thumb hovered over the call button.

Did I call him or text him? If I called him, I might have broken down in tears and turned into a blubbering mess. But if I texted him then he may have thought that I wasn't being sincere. It was a lose-lose situation and I was at loss as to what to do.

After a minute of deep thought, I returned to the 'home' screen on my phone and chucked it back onto the bedside table. Burying my face in the pillows, I let myself be carried into a dreamless sleep but unfortunately it didn't last long. I awoke with a start to my cell phone's message tone. A wave of nervousness ran through me when I thought that it might have been Derek, but I was disappointed when I found it to be Liz. She had sent me a picture of her in her dance outfit- dress, shoes, hair and make-up complete, asking me for my opinion. I smiled and texted her back telling her that she looked gorgeous.

It was just a bit before seven o'clock, people would be on their way to the dance by now and I was stuck in my room having a tantrum over a fight with my best friend. Did he think we were best friends? I didn't know where I stood with him. I wanted to be best friends but at the same time, I wanted something a lot more from him.

I thought about it longer than I cared to admit. Before I knew it Gwen and Andrew had gone to bed so I took it as an opportunity to sneak out. While I usually took my sketchbook to keep me occupied, I left it in my room, fully aware of what I was about to do.

Or maybe not. Or maybe I was. No, I couldn't. Or maybe I could.

My thumb hovered over the 'call' button the whole way over to the stream. I took a seat on the log and contemplated for another 5 minutes before I sighed heavily and pressed it down. Bringing the phone to my ear, the person on the other end picked up on the sixth ring.

There wasn't a _'hello?' _or even a '_what do you want?'_ It was just silent.

I froze, unsure of what I was doing but eventually my brain kicked into gear.

"Come outside?" I requested quietly and hoped that he could hear me.

The only reply I received was a grunt and then the dial tone as he hung up. My guess was that Derek was still mad at me and that he'd rather do anything that didn't involve me.

I shoved my phone back in my pocket and bought my knees up to my chest and cried into them. Did he not want to sort things out? Didn't he want to see me? Fix things, maybe?

I couldn't bring myself to move, it was even difficult to cry. I felt frozen in place and I couldn't do anything about it, so I cried even harder. It was pathetic but I didn't know how to get through high school without Derek. I was so dependent on him and I didn't even realise it up until now. I realised that I took him for granted and I hated myself for it.

My thoughts were interrupted by the crunching of leaves under feet and my stomach dropped. Whipping my head up, I found a large figure walking towards me, one that I knew well. If it were possible, I could have told you that my stomach dropped a second time.

Derek came to a stop five feet away from me and stood with his hands in his pockets. We stared at each other, me with tears running down my cheeks and him with his usual blank expression. I felt like an idiot as I stared at him, my mouth opening and closing as I went to say something but then stopped myself.

We remained in a silence that I couldn't quite describe. It wasn't awkward, but it wasn't comfortable either. Derek stood there while I sat and cried.

Eventually he walked over to me slowly and crouched down to my level. Looking into my eyes, he took his hand and bought it up to my face, wiping my tears away with his big thumb. For a moment he just stayed there with his giant hand cradling my face. I looked into his eyes but they revealed no emotion or feeling. What was I supposed to think?

"Don't cry." He whispered.

"Are you still mad at me?" I asked.

"I never was."

I nodded at his answer and closed my eyes. I felt him shift as he moved to sit beside me on the log. Again we lapsed into silence and while the tension had lessoned, it was still there.

"I'm sorry I yelled." I told him.

"So am I." When he put his arm around my shoulder, I leaned into him and rested my head on the side of his torso. We had never had contact like this; we never hugged or displayed any sort of affection towards each other. It was surprisingly comforting and I didn't want to leave. He rubbed my bare arm and I only then realised just how cold I was. While the weather was finally warming up, the nights were still chilly. I mentally scolded myself for not bringing a jacket but marvelled in the fact that Derek was warm.

"You know you're my best friend, right?" He told me. "I could never be mad at you. I was just mad at Liam. He's a creep, Chloe. And when I saw him hovering over you I... I just kind of lost it."

"It's okay Derek."

We lapsed into an almost comfortable silence where I remained tucked into his side. We stayed like that for a while, not talking. Conversation wasn't needed, we had just made up and as over the moon I was about that, I was still hurting over Gwen and Andrew's actions. He didn't need to know, not yet anyway.

It wasn't until Derek bought his lips down onto my temple that I felt true comfort in our embrace. We didn't make anything out of it though, it was a simple gesture.

How Derek felt about me, I wasn't sure. _Did _that quick kiss mean anything? I doubted it. If Derek wanted something, he went for it and I couldn't help but feel dejected at his actions – or lack thereof – but I couldn't blame him. I was looking too far into this. All that I could do was enjoy his company while it was there.

We eventually broke free from our embrace when he asked me about tutoring.

"Did you need to have a catch up session for what we missed today?" He asked.

I rolled my eyes. Trust Derek to turn a nice moment into something educational. "I think I'll be fine. It's nice out here." I replied, trying to avoid an extra hour of maths.

"Chloe, it's freezing. You're shivering." He pointed out.

"I'm fine," I defended, "I'd just rather not think about maths tonight."

He sighed. "You should probably do some proper catch up work, but I'll let you off on this one."

"Thank you." I said. A thought popped into my head where Derek and I had spoken in the library.

"Derek?" I asked.

"Mmm?"

"What did you need to tell me? You said something in the library about it today."

He raised an eyebrow in realisation and then tensed. "Oh, it was nothing."

"Derek…" I warned.

"Don't worry about it Chloe." He said as he absent-mindedly snaked his arm around my waist and drew me closer. "It was absolutely nothing."

I sighed. "You don't have to be all secretive and mysterious you know. You can tell me things." I reassured him.

"I know I can, and I do. You'll just find out when the time is right, okay?"

After a few mumbled words from me and a defeated huff, he did that _thing. _That damn thing where he bought his lips down to my temple and kissed it. That thing that sent my head spinning around the possibilities of what it could mean. It was only a short, soft gesture but at the time it felt like something much bigger. Not in the way that he liked me back, but it was a gesture of comfort and I liked that. It was exactly what I needed.

We didn't talk a lot over the period of time we were outside. There were a few jokes and words exchanged and he even gave me his jacket to wear in order to protect me from the cold wind that was biting at my skin.

Like usual when it was time to leave, he walked me to the bottom of the balcony stairs. We exchanged a goodnight but as I was about to leave he stopped me by winding his arms around my waist.

New territory. All that tonight consisted of was new territory where he snaked his arms around me, kissed my temple and showed affection. And hey, I definitely wasn't objecting. I just hoped that it meant what I thought it meant.

With his arms around me, he trapped me in a hug. It lasted no longer than 10 seconds but that amount of affection was enough for me. He made me feel safe and secure, and right now I needed that more than I needed anything else.

"Goodnight Chloe." He said as he let me go.

"I'll see you on Monday." I smiled and spun around to go up the stairs.

After a last quick glance, I disappeared behind the glass doors into my room and flopped down onto my bed. It wasn't until then I realised that I was still wearing Derek's jacket but it was probably too late to return it to him. He was probably home already.

Too lazy to properly get ready for bed, I quickly brushed my teeth and slid under the covers while still in my clothes, including Derek's hoodie.

I needed to figure out Derek. You would expect a normal teenage girl to know how to understand boys – let alone her best friend – but I still had no clue. Was it mixed signals he was sending me? Could you even call them mixed signals?

I sighed and rolled over in bed, feeling slightly confused. Why I was looking so far into this, I wasn't sure. His actions tonight confused me. Friends didn't kiss friends like that, right? Maybe it meant something more. I _hoped _that it meant something more and I needed to find out.

_I needed to figure out Derek Souza._


	18. No Hope

**This chapter was initially going to be a lot longer, but it ended up being way too long to publish all at once and I hadn't even completed it yet. So here's the first part I'm going to finish off the rest soon, hopefully. School is kicking my butt and I've barely had time to write, but I have a really long one-shot that's really close to being finished, so keep an eye out for my one-shot story when that gets updated.**

**Anyway, enjoy!  
>Disclaimer: I don't own Darkest Powers.<strong>

Waking up feeling less than refreshed wasn't my ideal way to start the school holidays and worst of all, I felt cranky. I snuggled closer into the blankets where I tried to hold onto the last remnants of sleep, carrying out the hope that I could be pulled under some more and wake up later. It didn't happen though. The crack in the curtain allowed a sliver of light to beat down into my room where it illuminated the dust particles floating through the air. Watching them was peaceful, almost calming. I couldn't tear my eyes away from it, which bought me to the realization that I wasn't able to go back to sleep.

I lay in bed a little while longer, allowing the mass of blankets to consume me. It was warm and comforting, a vast contrast to the bitter cold that awaited outside. Just as the weather was starting to warm up, people were trading in their thick winter jackets for something a lot lighter, but that soon changed. Over the past week a sudden abundance of snow covered the town and rid us of school for half of the week. Nobody was complaining though, everybody seemed to enjoy the snow – mostly when they were rugged up inside next to the fire with a hot chocolate cradled in their hands. I, however, enjoyed the spring time.

After snuggling into the warmth of the blankets for what felt like hours, I decided that it was time to face the music and hop out of bed. My guess was that it was only ten o'clock in the morning and I still had two hours before I had a study session with Derek, but I could have been wrong. Part of me didn't care about our study session and wanted to stay in bed, but another part of me was jumping excitedly at the idea of seeing my best friend. It definitely wasn't a situation where I could have the best of both worlds so I opted for getting out of bed, well, right after another half an hour of warmth in bed that was.

The mistake I made of not checking the clock when I awake proved to be exactly that – a mistake. After my last thirty minutes of lying in bed it was only then did I decide to check the time. I muttered a few swear words as I hurriedly jumped out of bed, tangling my legs in the sheets in the process. I hit the cold floor with a solid _thud _that made pain shoot through my already sore body.

"Great, my bruises are going to have bruises." I muttered to myself angrily. Today wasn't starting off well.

As I scrambled off the floor there was a knock at my balcony window which slightly confused me. I still had ten minutes before Derek was due here and even then, he would use the front door.

Pulling the curtains aside, surely enough there was Derek. I opened the door to the balcony and a freezing gust of wind blew into my room, making my teeth chatter against each other.

"Jesus, Derek. It's freezing out there, what the hell do you think you're doing?" I exclaimed as I pulled him through the door by the sleeve of his sweatshirt.

"Hey, hey calm down, it's fine." He said as he yanked his arm out of my grip.

"You'd freeze to death out there." I glared.

"You're forgetting that I'm a werewolf, I barely feel the cold."

"Whatever, that doesn't make you invincible." I mumbled. "You're early."

"I thought we could get a head start, but considering you literally just rolled out of bed tells me that it might take a while."

"Hey, I did not just roll out of bed!"

"Your bed hair tells me otherwise, also the fact that I heard you literally roll out and hit the floor." He stated pointedly.

"Shut up." I commanded him. "I'm having a shower, I'll meet you downstairs."

"Are you okay?" He asked as he caught my arm, squeezing one of my bruises.

"I'm fine." I told him as I yanked my arm back and entered the bathroom adjacent to my bedroom where the shower was awaiting me.

After I locked the door, I turned the hot water on and waited for it to heat up. During that time I stripped down to my skin where I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Nasty bruises covered my body – my shoulders, stomach, back, chest and even on my legs. I brushed my fingers over them gently, afraid that if I applied too much pressure, it would hurt. And they did. They hurt so bad.

They didn't hurt as bad as the abuse I had to endure. While they were the leftover remnants of it, the fact that what was once a loving family had turned on me so easily pained me even more. Gwen and Andrew welcomed me into their home lovingly and with open arms at first and it seemed like a perfect family, but everything changed.

Why? What did I do to deserve this? I didn't understand. All I wanted to know was why things happened the way they did.

This would have never happened if my mom had died. If my dad had wanted to support me a little while longer. If my Aunt Lauren hadn't given up on me so easily. If I had just one more biological family member that cared enough, maybe I wouldn't be stuck here. Stuck in a place where I didn't feel safe, where I felt unwanted.

But I also wouldn't have met Derek. Or known what a necromancer was. Derek helped me through finding out about my necromancy more than my biological family could have. Or did they know I was a necromancer? Was it hereditary like my blue eyes? I'd have to ask Derek about that.

It hurt to think of the many possibilities that my life held, so I tore my eyes away from the mirror and stepped into my shower where I let the hot water run down my body, soothing my sore joints and relaxing my muscles. It was calming, but the thought of having to leave felt unnerving.

After washing my hair and my body and shaving my legs, I shut off the hot water and stepped out into the bathroom that was flooded with steam and dried myself off.

I didn't even care that I was making Derek wait, I was going to take some time for myself for once.

After drying my hair completely, I pulled on a clean pair of black opaque leggings and an oversized hoodie that would keep me warm. I didn't even bother with make-up, only a little bit of lip balm so the cold weather wouldn't chap my lips.

After pulling my hair into a lazy ponytail I headed downstairs and into the kitchen where surely enough, Derek had raided the fridge and made himself a sandwich… or six.

"You owe us a new loaf of bread." I told him as I took two pieces out for myself and spread some peanut butter on each slice.

"So what's the plan for today? Are we focusing on my math-based incompetency or our English assignment?" I asked him as I bit into my sandwich. As soon as I caught a taste of peanut butter I spat it into the sink and scrunched my nose. "Yuck… crunchy."

Derek rolled his eyes at me as he plucked out the sandwich from my hand. "I was thinking we could start off and do an hour of math and then finish off the English work."

"Finish it off?" I asked disbelievingly. "We have the entire holidays to finish it!"

"You're such a procrastinator, Chloe. Wouldn't you rather get it over and done with now and have the rest of your holidays free? Or would you rather do it the night before it's due? Besides, the story is basically finished by now, we just have to fine-tune it."

"Okay fine then, Mister Sensible." I said as I buttered a new piece of bread. "So math first, right?" I turned to the dining room table with had homework sprawled all over it. After plucking out the papers that I needed for our revision, I turned back to finish making my new sandwich but instead found Derek eating his way through my already half-made sandwich. "Oh come on!" I exclaimed. "You've had like eight of those! Is there anything you won't eat?"

He grunted and shrugged. I took that as a 'no' and glared at him. After that I settled for an apple and sit next to him at the kitchen counter – math textbook in hand and ready for the next couple of hours of torture.

Our studying session passed by quickly. We spent more time mucking around than we did actually studying, but we ended up having the house to ourselves for six whole hours. That was six hours where I didn't have to worry about Andrew and Gwen coming home to hurt me and yell at me. For once I actually enjoyed myself in my own home – a rare occurrence. However, despite our breaks for food, TV and gaming, we still managed to finish all of our work off. It felt good to have all of it behind us, knowing that we had the rest of the break to relax.

Eventually Gwen and Andrew came home from and Derek left. I hugged him at the door and off he went down the road, leaving me with my family. I tried to sneak off to my room without being detected, but it was almost as if Gwen could smell fear.

"Why is half of the fucking bread gone?" She screeched. "I bought that damn loaf yesterday!" Gwen stormed up the stairs and I locked myself in my bathroom. She knew where I was, however, and proceeded to pound on my door.

I had no choice but to open it, if I hid then the result would have been worse. The second the door cracked open, she pushed it aside and barged in, knocking me onto the tiled floor of the bathroom, cornering me.

"How the hell do you eat so much bread?" She yelled.

"D-D-Derek was hungry, h-h-he made a s-sandwich." I stuttered pathetically.

"Cut the crap, that stutter doesn't fool anybody." She hissed. "What about the rest of the fucking bread? Did that just magically get up and leave?"

"I had one too." I whispered, afraid of my stutter rearing its ugly head.

Gwen leaned down and I felt a sharp sting on my face where her hand had just landed. I bought my hand up to my face to cradle it, but she grabbed my wrist so hard that it hurt.

"Next time you eat all of the bread it's going to get worse than this." She snapped as she pushed me back into the wall and stormed off.

After that ordeal I just sat there staring at the door that had slammed behind her. I didn't quite register how long I sat there for until I walked out and realized that the sun had set. Going back into the bathroom I turned the hot water on in the shower and stripped down to my skin for the second time that day. Stepping under the scalding hot water I let it run down my body. The intense heat of it made my skin feel tingly and relieved once I stepped out and dried myself off.

No matter how many times Gwen and Andrew had physically hurt me, I would always go into shock shortly after, and then the shock would be followed by crying and asking myself, '_why?'_ even though that question was useless.

I dressed myself in a singlet and sweat pants for bed and left the bathroom. Walking back into my room, John was sitting on my bed. "Long time, no see, sweet Chloe." He greeted me. I hadn't seen John in weeks, so his return was quite a nice surprise that I would have better appreciated if it came at a better time. Despite that, I greeted him and we made light conversation for a while when he eventually said, "You should talk to that friend of yours. The dark haired one that is always hanging out in the woods."

"Talk to him?" I asked, dumfounded.

"It's not very hard to see what is going on behind closed doors when you're dead, young Chloe. I'm aware that I have not appeared to you in quite some time, but I felt so very guilty that there is only so much that I can or could do." He told me remorsefully. "It's not something that one should go through alone, and I think that young boy you see so frequently cares for you deeply enough. He would know what to do."

I shook my head. "I can deal with things."

John laughed a sad laugh. "Denial. You young kids think you can deal with things but often it turns into a bigger mess when you try and handle it by yourself. My daughter, Clarice, she was much like you. After my death I watched over her and my wife while they denied that they needed help. It was a mess, but only because they did not admit that they needed assistance. Don't allow yourself to get in bigger trouble when you have help sitting in front of you."

"I'll think about it." I said.

Apparently that was good enough for John, because he soon told me goodnight and disappeared.

With shock still settling itself in, I crawled into my bed and stared at the ceiling while I contemplated what to do. Eventually I settled for picking up my phone and dialing Derek's number, taking head of what John said to me. Derek picked up on the fourth ring with a slurred "Hello?"

"Are you asleep?" I whispered.

"Not anymore." He groaned. "What's up?"

"Can we meet up please?" I asked. "Just at the rocks."

"Huh? Sure, I guess. Just give… just give me five minutes." He mumbled.

"Thank you." I said before I hung up.

I replaced my singlet and sweat pants with a long sleeved, tight fitting shirt and jeans before sneaking out onto the balcony and into the garden. I was halfway to the rocks when the events of the day hit me like a ton of bricks. I didn't want to cry, but I also couldn't help the tears that managed to escape my eyes. The wind whipped my hair in all different directions as I ducked and weaved random branches as I wiped furiously at my eyes with the sleeve of my shirt. For the moment I was too busy focusing on getting rid of my tears, my foot tangled in the root of a nearby oak tree and I felt myself descending towards the muddy ground. Usually I would have expected Derek's strong arms to wrap around me and stand me upright – he was usually there when I had a clumsy moment – but they didn't. I desperately tried to grab onto something that would help me regain my balance, but my efforts were useless and I ended up letting myself fall. My clothes and hair quickly became caked with mud as I felt pain explode through my body where all of my bruises laid. I was in agony.

I grabbed onto an overhead branch and tried to pull myself up, but slipped and slumped over at the base of the tree. There was nothing I wanted more in that moment than to go back to my old life. Each bruise reminded me of how good my life was before I had come to live with Andrew and Gwen. Granted that the orphanage I lived in wasn't ideal – they hit us there too – but it was never as bad as my current situation.

The end result of my fall was me curling up into a ball and crying. Pathetic, I know, but I was in so much pain and I wanted it to go away.

I'm not sure how long I cried for, but it felt like a while. Far too long to be crying when I had to meet Derek, anyway, but I couldn't bring myself to move. I wanted to be able to sit and cry and not have to worry about my hair or my make-up getting ruined. It actually started to feel good when my chest began to hurt as I took deep breaths to choke my sobs out. The pain in my chest distracted me from the pain of my joints and my bruises. I could cry as loud as I wanted and nobody would hear me, but I didn't take up that opportunity.

I was too focused on my heaving chest and my shaky hands to realize that I had been approached by Derek. In the time it took for me to calm down he had sat down next to me and had started rubbing soothing circles on my back. My choked sobs turned into silent tears streaming down my face as he wound an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his side. I tried to push him away but he wasn't having it. The more I pushed, the further he pulled me into him.

That was it. I was going to have to tell him everything.

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks for reading, hopefully in the next few weeks I'll have that one-shot uploaded, or a new chapter for my other story, <em>You and I Collide.<em> **

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